


Club: Detention

by Potterwatch97



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Abuse, All of the High School AU Cliches, Alternate Universe - High School, Attempt at Humor, Because everything happens in detention, Buckey and Rhodey just wanna shove their faces together already, Bullying, Child Abuse, Derogatory Language, Detention, Did I say slight angst?, Don't Call Me Phil, Fluff, Fury gives no fucks, Homophobic Language, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, I meant a SHIT ton of angst, Light Angst, M/M, Phil is tired of everyones shit, Steve is a lovesick dweeb, Tony is a punk, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-20
Updated: 2015-12-30
Packaged: 2018-03-31 10:05:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3974047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Potterwatch97/pseuds/Potterwatch97
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Detention is a new and strange experience for Steve Rogers, an experience that isn't made any less strange by Tony Stark, Shield High's number one punk-ass. It probably didn't help that he's had a crush on Stark since freshman year, a fact all of his friends know of course. And if the detention room is the only place Steve can keep Tony's attention, then as Steve's friends, it is their job to make sure he spends as much time in detention as possible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I finished High School and I shall be graduating in less than two weeks, so I now have time to do more than the occasional prompt on tumblr. This idea was actually prompted by tumblr too, but I'm going with it. Someone posted a list of Goodkid/Troublemaker AU's they wanted to see and I kept it in my drafts for when the inspiration struck. This is what I came up with. I usualy deal with drama and angst, but I'll take a stab at humor, why not. Hopefully it works.

He had seen him around before, of course. Everyone knew who he was. Loud, obnoxious, handsome Tony Stark. Yeah, he had a reputation: a bad boy, a punk, never really one to follow the rules. Girls loved him, guys envied him, the popular kids thought he was funny; hell, he was even popular among the "geeks" in the Science Club. Tony Stark was not only popular, but also a freaking genius. It drove Steve crazy... but maybe that was why Steve couldn't get Tony Stark out of his mind.

Steve was pretty sure though that if you asked Tony Stark his thoughts on Steve Rogers, Tony would have no idea who the hell you were talking about.

* * *

"You must be new at this. I don't think I've ever seen you down here before."

Steve froze in his chair. He had really been hoping he'd be the only one dumb enough to get detention on the first day back at school. Apparently he had expected too much of Tony Stark.

Tony didn't stop and sit in one of the desks set up for students, instead going straight to the front of the classroom and having a seat at the teachers desk, kicking his fancy black Nikes up onto the desk, relaxing in the chair as if that was exactly where he was supposed to be. Steve didn't think it was possible for anyone to be so at ease in a basement detention room. He tried not to show the shock and disapproval on his face. He was pretty sure he failed amazingly at it.

"No, I uh...," Steve cleared his throat. "I've never had detention before."

"Huh," Tony actually looked impressed. "Quite a feat. I don't know anyone at this school who's managed that, not even my science bro Bruce, and he's like an extreme pacifist. You new around here? I don't think I've seen you before."

Steve felt his heart drop a little bit, trying not to let his disappointment show. Of course he understood why someone like Tony might not recognize him on sight, but it still hurt a little. Pining away after a guy for four years will do that to you. Steve knew he had changed a lot that summer; had a huge growth-spurt, started working out and gained nearly 90lbs of muscle. He didn't think he looked all that different, but according to his best friend Bucky, compared to the '100lbs soaking wet' he had been all through high school so far, he was like a whole new person. Maybe if he lied to himself and said that was why Tony didn't recognize him he would feel better.

He didn't.

"No, actually, I um... I've gone here since freshman year," Steve stuttered. "My name is Steve Rogers? We have AP Psych together... or, well, you would know that if you had showed up to it today."

A flash of something Steve couldn't identify had flashed across Tony's face when he said his name before it was gone, carefully replaced by that stupid, adorable little smirk.

"Ah, right. Dr. Yinsin. Yeah, he's a cool guy, I had him last year for AP Physics. AP Psych just sounds so boring, and I don't want to sit in a class with a bunch of students who are gonna psychoanalyze me as their homework, you know?"

Tony removes his feet and reaches down into a drawer near the bottom of the desk. Steve hears a ruffling of plastic before Tony comes up with a snack sized Hershey Bar. He opens it and shoves the whole thing inside his mouth.

"So, what're you in for?" He asks, a little piece of chocolate and spit flying from his mouth.

"Doesn't matter."

"Of course it matters," Tony says, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "Kid like you, never had detention before in his life, first day of school, ends up in this gross ass basement after school for an hour. Must've done something good, really pissed somebody off."

"How do you have a bag of candy hidden in that desk," Steve diverts, watching as Tony reaches down and pulls out a miniature Snickers. "It's the first day of school. Did you plan on getting detention today?"

"Oh," Tony smiles, "I hid them in here last year after my last detention. Chocolate takes awhile to go bad, you know? And I knew they would have the same hard-ass teacher as last year doing this detention shit again, so I hid it in his desk."

"Thank you, Mr. Stark, I'll take that as a complement." Both teens jump at the voice, neither of them having heard the door open or a teacher come in, but Tony recovered quickly enough. "It takes a special kind of hard-ass to put up with your shenanigans, Tony."

"Phil! My man, how are you this fine afternoon?"

"Remove your feet from my desk, Mr. Stark," Mr. Coulson says, walking straight past Tony and to the second desk in the corner of the room, as if Tony in his chair was a natural thing. "Or I will remove them for you."

Steve couldn't help his instinct when the Vice Principle walked past his chair and sat up a little straighter, earning a little huff and an eye-roll from the genius.

"Come on, Phil," Tony smiled charmingly. "You know you missed me."

"I really didn't," Mr. Coulson deadpanned, sitting at the second desk. "Don't call me Phil."

"Sure think Phil."

Mr. Coulson sighed in a resigned manner before he spotted Steve sitting at one of the desks. He started a little bit, almost as though he hadn't expected to see anyone other than Tony in detention today.

"Mr. Rogers," Mr. Coulson said, "what're you doing in here? Please tell me this punk hasn't started to rub off on you."

"Ah, you wound me Phil!" Tony exclaimed, pressing his hands against his heart and falling back in the chair as though mortally wounded. "Stevie here is here all on his own doing! We just met today actually. He was just about to tell me what he's in for before you so rudely interrupted our conversation."

"I really wasn't." Steve said, though no one heard him.

"I'm sure he was, Stark," Coulson sighed again. "Look, let's just make this as painless as possible today, Tony, okay? You don't want to be here, I don't want to be here; I do have a life, you know, I have better things to do with my time than sit around after school to watch you eat candy and get dirt on my desk."

"Do you really?" Tony looked and sounded so genuinely surprised Steve couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. Though even he had a hard time thinking about teachers having lives outside the classroom, so maybe it want completely unwarranted.  
And here I thought you just plugged yourself in to recharge over night."

"Save it, Mr. Stark," Mr. Coulson grinned. "Or I'll throw all your hidden candy out of my desk."

"Ah, Phil, you're no fun," Tony whined, reaching down and pulling out two more mini candy bars.

"Don't call me Phil."

They sat in near silence for the next forty-five minutes. Near silence because Tony couldn't seem to sit still. He wiggled around in the chair, making it squeak when he turned it around. He fiddled with candy bars, his backpack, tired to fiddle with his phone before Mr. Coulson got up and took it from him. After that Tony would keep taking breaths and opening his mouth like he was about to say something before Mr. Coulson would shoot him a death-glare and he would go back to eating his candy. By the time time was up he had a small mountain of wrappers that made Steve nauseous, thinking about how much candy Tony must've eaten. When Mr. Coulson announced detention was over, Steve was visibly relieved. As much as he crushed on Tony, he was starting to get on his nerves. He wasn't sure how Coulson could just sit there and take it.

Steve got up and bolted from the room, trying to put as much space between him and Tony as possible. He knew if he spent another minute alone with Tony he would make a complete fool of himself.

"See you tomorrow, Phil!" He heard Tony call cheerfully behind him.

" _Don't call me Phil!_ "

Steve had made it as far as the schools lobby before Tony finally caught up with him.

"Hey, Rogers! Wait up!"

No matter how much Steve's mind told them to, his feet would not move. He didn't start moving again until Tony had caught up to him. He watched the way Tony swaggered over, completely confident and comfortable with himself. Steve loved it.

"You know, you never told me what you were in for," Tony said once they started walking again.

"Well, what about you," Steve countered, again avoiding the subject. "What did the infamous Tony Stark do to acquire detention on his first day back at school?"

"You know, it was the dumbest shit," Tony laughed with ease, not a care in the world, attention entirely on Steve. He was enjoying that. "My English, teacher, Dr. Stern? He hates my guts, has always since freshman year. I think it's because he used to teach my dad too. My dad was a pain in the ass. I don't know why Hill keeps putting me in his class. She must love to see me suffer. Anyway, we were having a general discussion today about the summer reading I didn't do, you know, it was very civil. Next thing I know he's calling me an insufferable know it all. Well, it reminded me of Harry Potter, so I called him a muggle. You'd think I'd get some kind of extra credit for perfect use of a literary reference but no, I get detention with my bestie Coulson."

"A muggle, huh?" Steve laughs, thoroughly enjoying the smile on Tony's face, the way his eyes scrunched up when he laughed. "I don't think anyone likes Stern, he's pretty hard-ass. Calling him a muggle though, that seems pretty tame for you."

"Yeah, not my best work, but... gotta keep em guessing I suppose."

Before Steve knew it he was by his dad's old Ford.

"Well," Steve said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "It was nice getting to know you."

"Yeah, yeah," Tony smiled, sticking his hands in his pockets and looking at the ground. "Likewise, Rogers. Maybe we should hang out sometime? You seem like a pretty cool guy."

Steve's heart skipped a beat. "Y-yeah. Yeah, I'd like that."

Tony's smile was radiant, full of gums and teeth as he turned and started walking toward his red Mustang.

"Hey, Tony!" Steve called.

Tony's head whipped around so fast Steve thought he might get whiplash.

"It was Hill that got me," Steve said, blushing slightly, lifting a hand to shield his eyes from the sun. "My detention. It uh... it was during courtyard. Some of the hockey jerks were picking on a freshman, some kid named Peter, for being gay. I went over and tried to stop them. Well, the one holding the kid threw him down and said to me 'You defending this little fag, Rogers? Maybe you want some of this too.' So he went to hit me, but I kneed him in the balls and punched him in the face before he could. Heard a snap, I think I broke his nose. Hill came and caught the last bits of it. Gave me detention and told me to take Peter to the nurse. So... yeah."

Tony looked like he had absolutely no idea how to react to that. But he still smirked after a moment of blankness.

"Wow. Look at you, Rogers. Hero among men, yeah?"

"Yeah," Steve said, blushing again and rubbing his neck. " Yeah I guess."

Tony smiled, laughing a bit. "So uh... see you around?"

"Yeah," Steve smiled. "See ya. Hopefully our paths cross somewhere other than detention next time."

Oh, if only he had known.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Steve's friends are assholes, Steve and Tony flirt awkwardly, and Shield High's teachers make pretty convincing Oompa Loompas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I'm surprised I'm updating so soon. I've been thinking about this chapter all day and I just got the urge to spit it all out. Here it is! Thanks to everyone who bookmarked and kudo-ed, and commented. I really appreciate it!
> 
> Kudos to anyone who catches the Captain America: The First Avenger, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Iron Man 3 references.

Steve didn't talk to Tony for another two weeks.

At first he thought maybe it was because Tony was busy, he was a popular guy, his dad ran a prestigious company, and he was a smart person in smart people classes and the only class Steve had with Tony was AP Psych. But after the first couple of days he would see Tony in the hall, wave, and get nothing in return. He could stare at Tony for extended periods of time (in a not creepy was because Steve wasn't creepy or obsessed or anything, honest) in the cafeteria during lunch and not get so much as a glance. Even on days when Tony did come to AP Psych, he would always sit on the opposite side of the room from Steve, almost like he was _trying_ to get away from him. Which was ridiculous, because they had only spoken to each other all of one time.

"Maybe he's only interested in bad boys," his friend, Clint Barton, said to him and he flung green beans into Bucky's mouth with a spoon one day at lunch. His aim was spectacular, Bucky didn't even have to try. "And you are hardly a 'bad kid.'"

"Make sense," Bucky said, catching another bean in his mouth. He didn't bother swallowing before continuing, "Bad boy wouldn't be attracted to a goody-two shoes. And Steve, better than that, dude, you're a fucking saint."

"Language," Steve said absently, again staring over at Tony's table where he was laughing with a couple of his football friends and some pretty girls.

Bucky rolled his eyes. "This is my point, man," he picked up his fork and starting flinging pieces of corn at Clint with nowhere near the accuracy Clint had. "You don't even like to say the word 'damn', and have you heard Tony Stark talk? I don't think he's ever uttered a sentence that didn't have the words 'fuck,' 'bitch,' or 'shit' in it."

Steve shrugged and went back to moodily stabbing at his mashed potatoes. It wasn't his fault that he was such a nice guy, he couldn't help it. It was the way he was raised. His single widowed mother had tried her hardest to instill good morals into Steve all his life. She was always there for him even if she had to work double or triple shifts at the hospital to pay the bills and feed their little family. He always felt that if he did anything against those morals he would be letting his mother down, and the last thing he wanted to do was disappoint her. Plus, having your mouth washed out with soap every time you curse tends to condition you not to use "such vulgar language."

"Steve, your Salisbury Steak is already dead, you don't have to kill it again," his other friend, Sam Wilson, said as he sat down with his tray. "Why is Steve stabbing innocent lunch meats?"

"He's upset because his pretty boy crush won't acknowledge his existence," Clint said around a mouthful of food. Bucky reached across to smack him across the head, but Clint ducked away before he could hit him.

"He's getting frustrated because Tony doesn't seem interested in talking to him anymore, so he's taking it out on his food while simultaneously eating copious amounts of it."

"I'm an emotional eater," Steve grumbled through a mouthful of mashed potatoes and gravy covered steak, waving his forkful of green beans around dangerously.

"Wait, why isn't he talking to you?" Sam looked confused. "I thought you said he seemed pretty interested in you? You guys even said you would hang out sometime."

"Well, that was when Steve was the misunderstood freshman hero in detention with Stark," Buck said. "Me and Barton think that maybe he's not interested anymore because Steve doesn't seem like a bad boy any more."

"Steve as a bad boy? That's the most-" Sam started, sounding completely incredulous, but cut off at the look on Steve's face. "-that's like a weird thing to think, why would he think that?"

"Because he got detention the first day of school for breaking some dickbags nose," Clint explained. "It's been two weeks and I know for a fact Stark has had detention every one of those days, and he hasn't seen Steve in there again."

"Well, this seems like an easy solution," Sam said, picking up his fork and scraping all his green-beans on to Steve's plate before digging in with vigor. "Just get detention again. There, problem solved."

Steve sighed. "Sam, if I get detention again my mom will kill me. She already took away my PlayStation for getting the one last time, even if she did understand why I did it. I just got it back, dude, I can't lose my COD again. I need it, Sam. I _neeeeeed_ it."

"No, that's a good idea!" Bucky said, jumping into the conversation.

"I don't know," Clint said smiling, "getting detention on purpose? Seem's like a pretty stupid idea, actually."

"No, no, this is good," Bucky looked so genuinely excited. "Just do something stupid, make it look like an accident. Then your mom can't get mad, you can see Tony in detention and get him to fall in love with you, everyone wins!"

"No, that is ridiculous," Steve said gathering his trash and standing to throw it away. "Getting detention just to talk to a guy I like when I can just go over to him and say hi like a normal person?"

"Well if that's how you feel about it, why don't you just go over there and say hi now?" Clint smiled.

"Are you _kidding_ , that's terrifying," Steve said, shouldering his backpack and starting to walk away. "I'll just suffer in si-"

He should've seen it coming. He really should've.

Looking back on it now he should've known that one of his dick friends would set him up like this, but he didn't even notice Sam casually stick his foot out when he was walking toward the trashcan, causing him to trip and stumble right into Mr. Killian, the biology teacher, causing him to spill hot tomato soup down the front of his bright white shirt. Steve was horrified. It was a total accident and he felt terrible that it happened, Sam was a literal asshole he was gonna kick him in the sack for that. But if he knew anything about Mr. Killian, he knew he wasn't about to let this go very easily.

"ROGERS!" He screamed at Steve, spit flying from his mouth and landing on Steve's face. He had to keep from flinching and wiping it off his face.

"I am so sorry sir, it was an accident, I really didn't mean to-"

"Detention, Rogers," Killian snarled at him. "Today after school, one hour with Coulson. Now go get me some napkins."

"Y-yes, sir." Steve jumped and ran towards the cafeteria lady to grab a handful on paper towels.

Meanwhile, Bucky, Clint, and Sam all high fived while still eating their food, acting like nothing had even happened.

* * *

"That was _fan-fucking-tastic_ , Rogers! Didn't know you had it in you!" Steve nearly groaned and dropped his head to his desk in embarrassment. All day today, no matter who he tried to explain it to, _it was an accident, I swear, I tripped_ , no one would listen. Instead they congratulated him on pissing off and embarrassing one of the hardest and meanest teachers in Shield High School.

"Gosh, not you too," Steve groaned. "It was an accident, why does no one believe me!?"

"Oh, I know it was an accident, I saw that Wilson kid trip the shit out of you, that was totally intentional of him, he wanted trouble." However, no matter how much Tony believed that Steve hadn't meant to do it, he still couldn't stop smiling and cracking up when he saw the frustration on Steve's face. "Why would he trip you anyway?" Tony asked. "You piss him off or something?"

"No," Steve grumbled, moodily dropping his backpack onto his desk. "He did it because he's an ass, that's why he did it."

"Well," Tony laughed, " I'm glad he did. It was worth it to see the look on Killian's face, and now I get to spend some time with my new detention buddy, so double win."

Steve felt his face heat up at being called Tony's 'detention buddy' and tried his hardest to push the blush down. He blush way too easily and he always felt so betrayed by his body when it did it. Tony had made his way up to his seat at Coulson's desk, again reaching into the bottom drawer to pull out his big bag of candy bars.

"Want one?" Tony asked, holding the bag up.

"Uh.. sure. Yeah." Tony tossed a couple of Butterfingers his way and they sat in companionable silence for a bit before Tony spoke up again.

"Haven't seen you in here the past couple weeks," Tony said carefully. "Thought maybe you were bailing out on me. Ever since Rhodey joined the ROTC I haven't had anyone to go to Club: Detention with."

"I bailed on you?" Steve couldn't help but blurting. "You're the one who said we should hang out again sometime and then didn't talk to me for two weeks."

"Yeah," Tony rubbed his neck sheepishly, "that is totally my fault. I'm always busy outside of school and I'm always late to AP Psych so all the seats in the front near you are taken already. Plus, whenever I see you in the hall you're always with one of your friends and I... I guess I was just to nervous to interrupt you. I figured I catch you eventually." Tony laughed. "I guess detention is the only time I can really get you to myself."

Steve was definitely blushing now, and nothing he told his body to do would happen. "It's okay," Steve said quietly. "It's not entirely your fault. I could've found ways to talk to you too, I guess."

"Nah, it's chill," Tony said. They sat in awkward silence for a moment before speaking again. "You beat up any more bullies lately? I haven't heard any tales of woe from the freshmen lately."

"No," Steve laughed. "I haven't seen Hodge and his cronies around lately, so I guess they learned their lesson for now."

"Yeah, I saw him a couple days after!" Tony said excitedly, pointing enthusiastically at Steve. "Yeah, he's in my computer science class! Came in with two black eyes, a splint on his nose, and a split lip. That is one mean left hook you've got there."

"Yeah, well... I work out." _Oh gosh, Steve, really? 'I work out,' what the hell is wrong with you!?_

Fortunately Tony didn't say anything, instead giving Steve an up-and-down look that made Steve all tingly inside before saying, "Yeah, I bet you do."

And of course that was the moment Mr. Coulson decided to walk into the room and interrupt their awkward flirting. Steve had never been so irritated with a teacher in his life. Being in here and talking with Tony all this time and suddenly detention didn't seem like such a bad thing.

"Mr. Stark. Feet. Off. Now." Tony lifted his feet off the desk and instead rested them on the filing cabinet next to said desk, smirking the whole time.

"Phil, you're late. That's so uncharacteristic of you."

Coulson snorted. "Yeah, well, I had to listen to a teacher complain about an annoying, snarky, dark-haried kid in his class that won't stop talking."

"Phil, your words wound me!"

"Good." Coulson finally turned around and noticed Steve again sitting at one of the student desks.

"Mr. Rogers,"Coulson smiled, "didn't expect to see you in here again." But before Steve could offer up any kind of defense for himself, Tony started talking animatedly for him.

"You should've seen it, Phil! Totally knocked Killian's lunch all over himself! Man, I haven't seen him that mad since I passed out spitball straws in his class last year and stapled an "AIM HERE" sign to the back of his jacket."

"I was there, Mr. Stark."

"Come on, you know it was great."

"No talking, Mr. Stark." They sat again in surprisingly companionable silence for about five minutes before Coulson spoke up again. "I will admit, he does kinda look like an Oompa Loompa when he's angry." Steve and Tony both burst out laughing.

"See Phil, I knew you had a sense of humor."

"Don't call me Phil."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony is insecure, Rhodey's an asshole, Steve's friends are still dicks and now Thor is in on the action. All Fury wanted was a ham and tomato sandwich. Steve's life sucks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'll put this one up, but my next chapter probably won't be until after my graduation and graduation party on the 31st. I'll still write, though, so I can post the next chapters as soon as possible. Also, this isn't beta'd, so if you see any mistakes I'm sorry. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, Kudo-ed, and bookmarked. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well! I don't like it much but I'm going to post it anyway! :P
> 
> On a side note, I've discovered that Thor is really hard to write and I'm pretty bad at it. Yikes.
> 
> Allons-y!

“I can do this.”

“You can do this.”

“How hard can it be?”

“Not hard at all.”

“Just walk over there and talk to him.”

“Just walk over there and talk to him.”

“Okay, I’m going.”

“Okay.”

.

“Tony?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re not going.”

“Maybe if you could just push me-”

“Tony!” The man in the JROTC sergeants uniform exclaimed. Rhodey was so obviously done with all of his best friend’s bullshit. It had been three days since Tony had seen Steve last in detention and although he promised himself he would try to grow the balls to find Steve himself and talk to him, he had yet to do so. “I’m so tired of your shit, man.”

They were sitting at courtyard during lunch, watching their friend Thor toss a football back and forth between Steve and his friend Sam. Thor and Sam were both on the football team, and while Thor and Steve had never met, they got along as though they had known each other all along. Once Tony had found out Steve was going to be trying out for the football team, Tony had sent his closest inside man to get the low down. He had to make sure Steve felt the same way about him before he made any serious moves. He didn’t want to have another Pepper scenario.

Not that he didn’t love Pepper and they weren’t still friends, but the aftermath of a falling out with a girl who you were decidedly more in love with than she was with you is not a fun thing to deal with. He really didn’t want to have to deal with that with Steve. He really didn’t want to have to deal with that with anyone ever again, but especially not with Steve. Steve was different, Steve was special… he felt things for Steve he hadn’t felt since he thought he was in love with Pepper. Not that he thought he was in love with Steve.

Or maybe he was. Crushing on a guy for four years will do that to you.

Yes, he knew who Steve was as soon as he walked into that detention room the first day of school. How could he not recognize those piercing blue eyes, that sunny blonde hair, the curve of his lips when he smiled in the most adorable awkward way? Sure, he had gained Adonis level muscles and like holy shit he was taller than Tony now which, honestly, was kind of a turn on. He could just imagine Steve on top on him, using his muscle weight to hold him down, pinning his arms over his head while he pounded Tony into the mattress-

Okay, wow, down boy.

Anyway, he had his reasons for pretending to not know who Steve was when he walked into that room that day. Honestly, it would've been a little creepy to walk in and be like, 'Hey! You're that guy I would sit in class and stare at all period and not learn anything because I kept getting distracted by your gorgeous smile for four fucking years!' Somehow he didn't see how that would come across as anything _but_ creepy. So he pretended. And he waited. The way he saw it he could just tell Steve about it in the future if they ever got together, they'd laugh at Tony's stupidity, and then continue on in life like nothing had ever happened. Because Tony would be happy, and Steve would be happy, and they could be happy together. And life would be perfect.

Tony really needed to stop setting himself up for disappointment.

He was pulled from his thoughts when he noticed Sam, Steve, and Thor agree to take a water break, and watched as Thor jogged back over to Tony and Rhodey to chug down a whole bottle of water.

"So," Tony pressed after waiting for him to finish. "What did he say? Isn't he amazing? I mean, how could he not be amazing, he's amazing - does he like me or what?"

Thor smiled at Tony's enthusiasm. "He sings nothing but good praises of you, Anthony." Tony rolled his eyes at Thor's proper English speak. He totally didn't do it naturally, but after reading Shakespearean plays for the first semester of their sophomore year when he moved here, he talked like that all the time to impress girls. But Tony and Rhodey knew it was complete bullshit.

"That doesn't tell me if he wants to kiss me, Thor. The science department 'sings good praises' of me all the time, but that doesn't mean they want to suck face with me."

Thor rolled his eyes. "Steven does not seem one to take kindly to the phrase 'sucking face,' but I understand your meaning nonetheless. He seems quite taken with you, truly. He does not stop speaking of the things you discuss in detention. 'Tony said' this or 'Tony says' that. Me and Samuel are beginning to find it quite irritating, truth be told."

"Good, talking about me a lot is good. That's a good thing, right, Rhodey?"

Rhodey sighed. "Someone talking about you? No, in my experience it's not."

"Whatever," Tony said as he watched Thor go back out to meet Sam. "You're just jealous because no one is talking about you."

"I'm pretty not jealous actually. Like at all."

Tony had stopped paying attention in order to watch Sam and Thor as they waited for Steve to come back from the bathroom. They were whispering conspiring-ly with extremely suspicious looking grins on their faces. He watched as Sam waved over someone else, some blonde kid with purple sunglasses, and they continued to whisper. Once he noticed the blonde kid point back at him before pointing to the bathroom, and saw Thor smile far too innocently his way, he knew something was up. He narrowed his eyes in their direction, which only made Thor wave a little as Steve came out of the bathroom and blonde kid ran back to his table to put his arm around some gorgeous redhead as if he hadn't moved at all.

They continued their game of toss the football before Tony noticed something strange. Thor and Sam were throwing the ball in such a way that made their little triangle turn, making it so Steve was standing with his back to the wall by the bathrooms, and Thor and Sam were standing with their backs the the quad where teachers and students were having lunch. He watch, almost in despair, as Steve threw the ball between Sam and Thor. Sam ran for the ball but tripped, and Thor went down to catch him, going down just in time for the ball to sail over their heads and hit someone in the back of the head.

And that someone just happened to be Principle Fury.

Steve looked horrified. This would be the second time in a week that he had accidentally disrespected a teacher. And, now that Tony thought about it, the second time Sam Wilson had been involved in making it happen. And Tony could totally say that because he knew for a fact that Sam, the _running back_ , would not have tripped over a completely flat surface while running to catch a ball. Something didn't smell right here. And it wasn't the school lunch.

Okay, it wasn't _just_ the school lunch.

"Rogers," Fury said in a completely neutral voice. He stood and brushed off the ham and tomato sandwich that had fallen onto his trench coat before turning to Steve with a not so nice smile. Oh. Tony had been on the other end of that smile. This was bad. The one eyed glare with the eye-patch didn't help much either.

"I think detention is in order," Fury said, still with the insanely creepy smile. "Today, after school. Three o'clock, one hour with Coulson. Don't be late." Fury started to walk away while Steve just stood, white faced and wide eyed as everyone on the courtyard stared at him with sympathy. They knew just how intimidating their principle could be.

"You coming, Rogers?" Fury called behind him.

Steve visibly flinched before answering. "Coming where, sir?"

"To buy me lunch," Fury droned. "Since you decided to wreck the one I had brought earlier. I'm thinking pizza."

"Yes, sir," Steve jumped and ran after Fury with obvious panic on his face. Tony felt for him, he really did.

Steve was too busy running away to see Wilson hop to his feet, perfectly fine, before high fiving Thor with a smug grin.

But Tony saw.

* * *

 

His detention that night with Steve and Coulson had been amazing. Coulson ended up showing up at 3:45 so Tony and Steve had time to eat candy, play games on Tony's phone, and bitch about Fury. Coulson hadn't said a word when he walked in, and Steve and Tony didn't bother him. And the best part was that Coulson still let them go at four o'clock instead of making up the time Coulson wasn't here for.

"Now get out of this room. If I'm lucky I'll never see you two again." Coulson had said.

"Come on, Phil, you know you'd miss me," Tony had called behind him as they walked out the door.

" _Don't call me Phil!"_ Was the last thing they heard before the door shut behind them.

"Well, that was interesting," Steve had said with a gin. "You're going to have to go ahead without me today. I have to go to the counseling office to check the scholarship board. And avoid going home to my mom to explain why she got a call from Fury complaining about a ham and tomato sandwich."

"Alright," Tony said, feeling slightly disappointed. "I'll see you around sometime. Stop being such a troublemaker!"

Steve laughed as the reached the top of the stairs and started walking away. "Pot. Kettle. Black," he called behind him before walking into the front office.

"Asshole," Tony smiled fondly as he walked out the front doors. And walked directly into blonde kid, Thor, and Sam all talking and waiting by the fountain in front of the school.

"What're you guys here for," Tony asked, sneaking up on them from the side. They all jumped at the sudden voice, but upon seeing it was Tony, decided he wasn't a threat and calmed down. Tony tried not to be offended.

"We're here to apologize to Steve for getting him detention," Sam smiled. "If I hadn't tripped the ball wouldn't have hit Fury."

"Bullshit," Tony exclaimed, causing Sam and blondie to look at him weird. "Accident my ass. If that trip was an accident then I'm fucking unicorn."

"I don't see a horn," blonde kid said, poking Tony in the head.

"Knock it off," Tony, said, shoving his head away. "I saw you guys talking while Steve as in the bathroom. I saw you guys throwing the ball so your spots would reverse, and I _saw_ you purposely trip so you wouldn't catch that ball! Why are you guys so determined to get him in trouble? He hates being in trouble."

"Yes, but he likes you more," blonde kid said.

"I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Clint Barton, at your service. President of the archery club and dating the hot Russian redhead exchange student. Also helping push the man you love into your arms."

Tony was floored with that one. "Wait, what?"

Sam sighed, clearly annoyed with being interrogated. "Look, we're not bullying him, and we're not trying to get him hurt. We're trying to get him to stop being such a pussy and just go talk to you."

"By giving him detention?!"

"He's too nervous to go up to you to talk to you," Barton explained, pulling an arrow out of nowhere (likely his ass) and twirling it like a drumstick. "He's all shy and shit and you're always surrounded by a bunch of obnoxious popular preps. It's not very encouraging."

"Okay," Tony drew out, not quite sure what to make of that revelation. "But that doesn't explain why you keep making Steve soil teachers with their own food."

"Steven believes that the only way to truly hold your undivided attention is if he is in detention," Thor explained.

"So we told him to purposely try to get detention so he could see you, since he wanted to talk to you so bad," Clint continued.

"And he hates getting in trouble and refused to do it, so we're just helping him out. Thor's agreed to help."

Tony stared at them. "That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

"Have you met Steve?" Sam asked in a deadpan. "Look, you like Steve, Steve likes you, and this is the solution we came up with. No one is getting hurt other than a couple of teachers lunches, so everyone wins."

Tony stopped to think about their plan. It was the most ridiculous and terribly thought out thing he ever heard. But, it was working so far, so maybe he should just roll with it.

"Okay," Tony said, causing the three boys to smile at him. "I won't say anything. But I don't want to get involved. And if anyone gets hurt, _especially_ Steve, it stops immediately. Got it?"

"Crystal clear," Sam said, as Steve finally came out and greeted his friends. Tony listened to Sam and Thor's poor attempt at an apology, but Steve just laughed and shrugged it off, making some joke about something that Tony didn't really listen to.

"Hey, Tony," Steve called behind him, pulling Tony from his musings. He had a crooked smile on his fave and the wind was making his hair so windblown it was almost sexual. "You comin'?"

"Yeah," he croaked, before clearing his throat and trying again. "Yeah, I'm coming."

God, he was so going to regret this.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve's friends are assholes, Tony and Steve are wimps, and Bruce is so done with everybody's shit. Steve gets detention in some pretty awkward ways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOOOOOORRRY for such a long wait on an update for this one, I've been so busy this past month working and getting ready for college. And writers block hit me hard I'm not going to lie. Now, it might be a couple of weeks until the next update, but definitely not the long month wait that this one was. I have a plan for the rest of the story, but this one had really stumped me.
> 
> I do not own the song London Bridge by Fergie, I am simply borrowing it for entertainment purposes.

They came up with the most trivial and unoriginal things, honestly, Tony could have come up with so much better. Not that he would, because he promised himself he wouldn’t get involved in their schemes, but, still. Pathetic.

The day after Tony’s talk with Steve’s friends, Tony listened to Steve tell him about how he had managed to somehow get detention this time. Steve was very obviously not amused, and Tony was very not impressed. Honestly, these guys were so unoriginal! They really needed to come up with stealthier ways if they didn’t want to get caught and have Steve hate them forever. Not that Tony would have to worry about that, because he wasn’t going to get involved. Nope, not one bit.

He felt bad for letting it go on. Really it wouldn’t be that hard to just find Steve during the school day and talk to him, or hang out with him after school. Maybe he could even show up for AP Psych on time, but that would mean having to leave lunch early. He could always hand out with Steve in the courtyard, eat lunch with him and his weird ass friends. But that would mean not going to Science Club, which would suck because, well, _science_. Steve _would_ be worth it though…. No, for now he was going to continue ignoring Steve’s weird ass friends with their dumbass plan to keep getting Steve detention so that Tony could talk to him.

Man, he was so in over his head.

* * *

 

The first time Tony witnessed it happen had been in AP Psych, when Tony was actually there to witness it. And while it wasn’t the most original thing in the world, it was still pretty damn funny, considering the blush on Steve’s mortified face.

The beginning of class Tony had managed to slide in the door just as the bell rang, and subsequently didn’t get detention for being late. Which was good, because he already had detention for releasing all of the biology lab’s turtles, birds, and bunnies into Coulson’s office. It had been worth it to see Phil’s face, and Tony totally caught him cooing at the new baby bunny a student had brought in that week. He might have cooed too when he saw it, but he wouldn’t admit that to anyone.

Barnes had come in not long before Tony and had snagged the seat next to Steve Tony always wished he could have. Instead, he got stuck in his customary seat in the back of the class that he had gotten bored and carved his name into one day. Professor Yinsen was rushing around the class trying to get caught up with the day, and everyone was still talking. But Tony was sitting close enough to Barnes and Steve that he could hear their conversation just fine.

“Hey, Stevie,” Barnes said as he turned to Steve. “Can I see your phone for a minute? Mines dead and I left the charger at home. Forgot to tell Ma I have wrestling practice today.”

“Yeah, sure,” poor, gullible Steve had said as he absentmindedly pulled his phone out of his sweatshirt pocket and handed it to Barnes. “Hey, did you see me with my binder last period?”

“Dude, I don’t know, I don’t pay attention to half the shit you do.”

Tony rolled his eyes and Steve huffed and got up to ask Professor Yinsen if he could go back to his last class and get his binder. He stared at Steve’s butt for a minute as he walked from the room to go get his things. He shook his head and looked back to Barnes, who was doing something to Steve’s phone that most definitely wasn’t texting. He watched him as Steve’s ancient ass phone showed a little check mark that said, _‘Ringtone Changed.’_

Tony continued to watch in near disbelief as he watched Barnes turn the volume on the phone up to the top and shove the thing back into Steve’s backpack. He could see where this was going.

When Steve came back a minute later with his binder, and confirmed with Barnes that his phone was in his backpack, he opened his notebook and began taking the notes Professor Yinsen had put on the board.

Tony continued to keep an eye on Barnes through the rest of the class, and sure enough, halfway through Yinsen’s lecture, he pulled his phone out, dialed someone’s number, and pressed the little green phone call button. It took a second, but the moment he heard it, loud and clear and as profane as ever, he burst out laughing so hard he thought he might crack a rib.

_All my girls get down on the floor (OH SHIT)_   
_Back to back, drop it down real low (OH SHIT)_   
_I'm such a lady, but I'm dancing like a ho (OH SHIT)_   
_'Cause you know I don't give a fuck, so here we go (OH SHIT)_

_How come every time you come around_   
_My London, London Bridge wanna go down?_   
_Like London, London, London_   
_Wanna go down like_   
_London, London, London_   
_Be going down like..._

Steve, the poor little cinnamon roll that he was, completely forgot that his phone was in his backpack, and continued to search through all of the pocket’s on his person frantically, allowing the song to continue into the third verse of ‘OH SHIT’s’ before it cut off midway through the third verse and emitted a little _ding!_ to let him know he had a missed call.

The silence was deafening. Or, it was for a minute before Tony started laughing his ass off again and everyone else joined in because that was the funniest thing he had seen all day. He did feel a little bad for poor Steve, standing there with his now-found phone in his hand, his face so red someone might mistake it for a tomato.

“Yes, yes, that was hilarious, ha-ha-ha,” Yinsen said as he walked toward the mortified radish that was Steve. “I think all be taking this, Mr. Rogers,” he said, snatching the phone out of his hand. Steve continued to stand frozen where he was like he couldn’t believe his life at that moment. “And you can get it back from me at the end of the day, after your hour detention with Coulson after school.”

The class groaned in sympathy, but continued to chuckle until Yinsen said if they didn’t shut up they would have a pop quiz. Steve finally sat down and stared toward the front of the class for the rest of the period in terrible confusion. Tony couldn’t help but notice how smug Barnes looked at the moment, and he had to admit, that was pretty epic, even if it was trivial.

And he couldn’t help but laughing even more as he walked out of the class with Barnes and Steve later that period, when Steve whispered to them in desperate embarrassment, “I didn’t even know I _had_ that song on my phone….”

He and Barnes shared a look before bursting out laughing again, going their separate ways to their different classes.

* * *

 “So, Steve,” Clint said as he sat down next to him in their AP American Government class. “Talk to Stark any lately? I know you had detention yesterday, he had to be there too.”

“Yeah,” Steve smiled, “he got detention from Coulson for trying to put itching powder in the wrestler’s uniforms. Now that I think about it, it’s amazing he hasn’t been expelled yet…”

“Well, when your father owns half the school board, I guess you can get away with anything,” Clint rolled his eyes. “Are you going to see him again? You know, outside of detention?”

“I don’t know,” Steve sighed, pulling out his notebook as Mr. Phillips came in and pulled up a PowerPoint on the board. “I have his number and we text sometimes, but he always seems so busy, I don’t want to bother him…”

“Oh for the love of-“ Clint murmured under his breath.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Clint said smiling. “Just... forgot there was a quiz today. Didn’t study.”

The room quieted down as Phillips handed out the quizzes. Once Phillips finally got back to his desk at the front of the class and pulled out a book to read, Clint reached into his pocket and pulled out a straw and a crumpled up piece of paper. Making sure no one was looking and his target was unawares, he tore part of the paper, chewed it up in his mouth before putting the straw to his lips, aimed, and blew.

It would’ve been a perfect hit if Bruce Banner, who sat in the chair in front of Phillips, hadn’t chosen that moment to pick up his head. Instead of hitting the intended target, it had hit Bruce square in the back of his head. He turned around to stared disbelievingly at Clint. Clint grimaced and mouthed a quick, “ _Sorry_ ” to him before he thought again and mouthed, “ _Duck down. I’ll explain later_.”

Bruce, to his credit, took one look at the straw in Clint’s hand and realized the unfortunate-ness of his seating choice, rolled his eyes, and ducked his head back down so it was practically laying on his desk. Clint tore up more paper, put two more little balls in his mouth and chewed before raising the straw again. This time Bruce stayed down, and the two spit balls hit their intended targets: Phillips’ book in his hand, and smack dab in the middle of one of the lenses in his glasses.

Using his quick reflexes before Phillips could notice him, he picked up his pen, ducked his head down to make it look like he was testing, and threw the straw onto Steve’s desk. Steve, poor Steve, being so innocent and confused, looked over and picked up the straw and stared at Clint just as Phillips stood and looked for the culprit.

“ _ROGERS_!” He shouted, walking towards Steve’s desk.

“Um… yes, sir?” Steve squeaked. Like, actually squeaked.

“You think spit balls are funny, do you?”

“Do I…” Steve looked down at the straw in his hand in realization before throwing down like it had burned him. “ _Oh_! No, sir, I didn’t… I wouldn’t…”

“I’m sure you didn’t, son,” Phillips said gruffly, snatching the straw out of Steve’s hand. “Well, you can laugh it up in detention today after school with Mr. Coulson. I’m sure he’ll find it hilarious.”

“Yes, sir,” Steve said, glaring over at Clint. “Sorry, sir.”

“Damn straight you are. Now, everyone turn your quizzes in…”

Once Phillips had collected the papers and had begun the day’s lesson, Steve turned to Clint so fast Clint thought he might give himself whiplash.

“What the hell, Barton! Why did you do that?”

“Look, I’m sorry,” Clint said, trying and failing to look remotely sorry. “I couldn’t remember any of the shit for this quiz so I decided to do better things with my time. I was aiming for Banner’s head but he put his head down and it hit Phillips! What was I supposed to do?”

Steve was so angry he didn’t even notice the annoyed look that Bruce threw Clint’s way. “Oh, I don’t know, own up to it like a man?”

“Dude, no,” Clint looked horrified. “If I get detention one more time I’m going to get demoted on the Archery Team! I can’t let that happen! I’d lose my scholarship!”

“Whatever, man,” Steve grouched, turning back to his notes and ignoring Clint. Clint would’ve felt bad, but he couldn’t really bring himself to care about Steve’s bad mood. He smiled as he watched Steve pull out his phone, no doubt to text Tony. Those two were disgusting, and he loved it.

* * *

It was later at the end of the day when Clint was walking to his car with his girlfriend, Natasha, when he was cornered by a short, thin, wiry human by the name of Bruce Banner.

“What the hell was that?” He said, narrowing his eyes at Clint. “You were definitely not aiming for me, and I know you deliberately set Steve up to get caught like that.”

Clint sighed and turned to Natasha, who was just looking back and forth between him and Bruce in confusion. “Look, you’re friends with Stark, right?”

“Yeah, he’s president of the Science Club. I’m vice president. I think it’s safe to say I know him.”

“So you know how much he’s pining after Steve Rogers, right?” Natasha looked between them in understanding before returning to her usual bored face.

“Is that what this is about?” understanding also spreading across his face. “Tony being in love with Steve? God, that guy never shuts up about him. It’s all I can do to keep Pym and Richards from punching him in the mouth to shut him up.”

“Exactly,” Clint said smirking. “And Steve never shuts up about Tony. Those two are so in love it’s ridiculous. And for some reason those two are too fucking pussy to just go talk to each other like normal people, so we have to set it up for him.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you made it rain spit balls in Government and pinned it on Steve,” Bruce said, warily rubbing his eyes under his glasses. “And whose _we_?”

“Me, Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, Thor Odinson, and hopefully soon James Rhodes,” Clint listed off, counting them off on his fingers. “Basically anyone close to the two of them. Since their both stupid, the only way they seem to be willing to talk to each other is in detention, so we’ve been coming up with ways to get Steve detention so they’ll finally just make out or something.”

“That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard,” Bruce deadpanned. “Why don’t they just talk to each other?”

“Like I said, they’re stupid,” Clint explained.

“Wait, won’t Steve notice something is up though,” Natasha said, putting in her two cents. “He’s a pretty smart guy, and you guys haven’t been the most subtle in your plans.”

“I know, but you don’t know Steve,” Clint said smiling. “He’s a smart guy, but when it comes to common sense, he’s an idiot. Completely oblivious. I’m not worried.”

“Alright,” Bruce said suddenly, closing his eyes and running a hand through his hair. “Okay. I’m going to help you.” Clint nearly cheered in glee. “But only to get Tony to stop going on and on about Steve all the time. It’s so annoying. And also because you’re ways of getting detention are terrible. They’re too risky and simple, Steve is bound to notice if you keep it up. You need to plan and coordinate. I can help with that.”

“I’ll help, too,” Natasha said, “not because I really care about their feelings, but mostly because you guys are going to need some stealth. I’m a ballerina, I can help with that. Also I like messing with people’s lives and embarrassing them publicly.”

Clint and Bruce both stared at Natasha before Clint turned close to Bruce and whispered, “I can’t tell if she’s serious or not.” Before Bruce shoved him away. Natasha smirked.

“I’ll help,” Bruce repeated. “Come by the science lab with me, Tony and Steve are in detention, so we can plan there.” They all three started walking before Bruce stopped and turned around to smile at Clint.

“And if you ever pelt me with anything ever again, you will regret it,” he said, his smile feral. “You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”

Natasha and Clint stared after him as he turned around and continued walking. Clint turned in close to Natasha before whispering, “I can’t tell if he’s serious or not.”

Natasha shoved him so hard in Bruce’s direction he almost face planted into the street.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve get's all tingly inside, Bruce becomes a sneaky green-bean, and Tony grows some balls. Bucky just wants to shove their faces together and get it over with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve realized in re-reading the last two chapters I feel as though the characters are coming off as “dickish,” so I’ll try to humanize them some. I was going to wait to post this chapter till next week but I was like “Fuck it.” This thing will probably end up clocking in at around 10 or 11 chapters. Also, I have a habit of typing these chapters up at one in the morning and not rereading it before posting, so if you see any glaring errors, just let me know.
> 
> So… yeah.

“And then he just throws the straw on my desk, like he thinks I’m not going to notice!” Steve huffed, crossing his arms and pouting. Tony thought he looked totally adorable.

“And then me, because I’m a big dumb idiot, picks the straw up so it actually looks like I did it, and that’s how I ended up here.”

“I don’t think you’re a big dumb idiot,” Tony said, smiling, winking and throwing Steve some candy from his stash. “Why was Barton spit-balling anyway?”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Said since he didn’t know anything on the quiz, he’d find something else to do. Which apparently meant blowing spit-balls at the back of Bruce Banner’s head.”

“Bruce Banner?” Tony said, frowning. “Brucie Bear? Why would he do that? Doesn’t Bruce tutor him in math?”

“Yes,” Steve said, stuffing some chocolate in his mouth. “I don’t know, Clint’s an idiot. Said he was aiming for Bruce but missed when he put his head down and hit Phillips instead.”

Tony knew for a fact that that was a huge lie, because whenever Bruce took a test, he always put his head so far down it was practically laying on his other arm while he wrote. Also, it was a well-known fact about Clint Barton throughout the school that he _never_ missed his targets. But if Steve hadn’t noticed anything odd about the cover story, Tony wasn’t going to point it out to him.

“Yeah, well, Barton’s stupid.”

"I know,” Steve said, sighing. “I’m just so tired of getting in trouble all the time. I hate getting in trouble. Eleven years of schooling and not a single detention, then suddenly senior year happens and I get fifteen in the first two months.”

“Welcome to the club, fellow troublemaker,” Tony smirked over at Steve. “Club Detention, population: two. Technically three, if Phil would show his ass up on time for once. How is it _I’m_ always on time for detention, but _he’s_ not?”

“You know, it’s weird,” Steve said, suddenly frowning. His brow was furrowed like he was trying to remember something important. “Fifteen detentions in two months, and they haven’t threatened to suspend me or expel me or anything.”

“Yeah?” Tony said offhandedly. “Weird.”

“And I haven’t been getting in trouble with Ma either,” Steve continued to frown, and look at the ceiling like it held all the answers to his problems. “I asked her if she’d gotten any calls from the school lately, made up some story about flu shots, but she said she hasn’t gotten any since August. Aren’t all of these going on my permanent record?”

“Well, I’m sure they are when the teachers write them,” Tony said slowly, looking nonchalantly at his fingernails. “But they aren’t there after I delete them at the end of the day.”

Steve’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head. “What?”

Tony smiled sheepishly, blushing slightly as he looked at Steve through his eyelashes. “Yeah. I may or may not be deleting the detentions off your permanent record so they can’t suspend or expel you. Can’t punish you for doing something they have no record of you doing.” Tony looked Steve in the eyes, his face earnest and his brown eyes big. “I know how much you hate getting in trouble, so I just figured I’d try to help out some. Hacking into the school is surprisingly easy, they should have that checked….”

Of course, Tony wasn’t going to say anything about feeling bad for allowing Steve to get detention. He knew about Sam, Clint, and Bucky’s plan to get Steve in detention as much as possible to talk to Tony, as stupid a plan as it is. He knew that they meant well and wanted Steve to be happy but, really, they obviously didn’t think through the ramifications of this plan very well. And he knew that they would stop if he told them to, and he knew he could solve this whole problem by just talking to Steve outside of detention, but with his and Steve’s schedule, this was really the only time they were able to see each other.

But he had a plan. He had been thinking about if for a while now, and after texting Steve every day and seeing him after Psych class, he thought he finally had the courage to ask Steve to hang out outside of school sometime. He had a very rare free weekend coming up, and he really wanted to ask Steve to do something. Maybe then he’d be able to gage whether Steve really liked him or not so he could make a move.

Though, if the way Steve was smiling, and blushing as he looked shyly at Tony were any indication, he’d say his chances were looking pretty good.

“Well… thank you, Tony,” Steve blushed. Tony wondered just how far down that blush really went. “That means a lot to me. But aren’t you worried you’ll get caught?”

“Not really,” Tony answered honestly. “What are they going to do, expel me? My father would fire half of them before they could finish the paperwork.”

“Right,” Steve rolled his eyes like he always did when Tony started to get a big head. It was pretty refreshing. “But seriously… thank you. I really need school right now for scholarships and stuff. Plus, I finally have a weekend free from work, and I would really hate to be stuck at home grounded for that.”

“You’re welcome,” Tony said quietly, his heart-rate picking up at Steve’s mention of a free weekend. Now’s your chance, Stark. “Speaking of weekends, I was wondering-“

“Mr. Stark, you can talk about your weekend plans later,” Coulson said, finally walking into the detention room twenty minutes late. Tony nearly groaned out loud. Fucking Coulson. “I’m here now, so be quiet for the rest of the hour and I’ll let you leave at four like planned.”

Steve turned and took out some of his homework to work on during the hour, giving Tony the chance to talk to Coulson.

“ _Dammit_ Phil!” Tony whispered. “You are _such_ a cockblock, god!”

“Language please, Mr. Stark. And no talking.” Tony turned away from Coulson and pouted as Coulson walked towards his desk.

“And don’t call me Phil.”

Tony face-planted on the desk in exasperation.

* * *

 

“Look, I’ve told you, it’s not dangerous and no one will get hurt. This will be perfect!”

“I don’t know, Bruce, this seems awful risky…”

“Not if we time right, I’m telling you….”

Bruce, Clint, Natasha, Thor, Sam, and Bucky were all sitting at a table in the courtyard during lunch. Steve was off talking to his English teacher about a scholarship essay, and Tony was off doing whatever Tony’s did, leaving them the time to talk about their next plan.

“I don’t see how this isn’t dangerous,” Bucky said frowning. “Your plan involves chemicals and small explosions.”

“Yeah, that kind of screams dangerous,” Sam agreed.

“It’s not, I promise,” Bruce said, waving away their worries as he looked over his notes. “It’s just a small, harmless chemical reaction. And if it were dangerous, do you really think I would be volunteering to be in the crossfire when it happens?”

“Well it was either you or Natasha, since you two are the only ones with chemistry with Steve,” Clint pointed out. “And I’m not letting you put my girlfriend in any danger. Not that you couldn’t handle yourself _during_ said danger!” Clint amended as Natasha glared at him and pressed on his toes with her heel. “You can totally handle danger! Danger runs from the likes of Natasha Romanova!”

“Damn right,” Natasha said smirking. “Besides, I’m wearing a white blouse, I don’t want it get ruined.”

“How many times do I have to tell you it’s not dangerous?” Bruce sighed. “The worse that’ll happen is it’ll take a few days for the color to come out, no one is getting burned or anything. It’s just adding a little extra chemical, everyone will be fine.”

“And from the way Bruce explains this plan, it will easily look like a small accident,” Thor smiled around at everyone. “And we no longer will be at risk of Steven getting suspicious!”

“Exactly, thank you Thor.”

“You are quite welcome, Bruce.”

“Alright, fine,” Bucky said, sharing a look with Sam. “But if anyone gets hurt, I swear to _God_ -“

“If anyone gets hurt doing what?”

They all looked up to see Steve hovering over them with his lunch in his hands. He frowned around at everyone, who all looked like deer caught in headlights. “What are you doing that could make some get hurt?”

“Flag football.”

“Rollerblading.”

Bucky and Sam stared at each other as everyone else looked at them in surprise, some of them with smirks on their faces. No one was offering any answers, and Bucky and Sam just happened to have answered at the same exact time. Steve was looking at them like they were completely insane.

“Flag football,” Sam started slowly, wincing even as he heard the words come out of his mouth. “On rollerblades. You know, extra challenge.”

Natasha put her face into her hands while Clint tried to cover up his laughter. Steve looked completely horrified.

“Flag football on rollerblades?” He asked incredulously. “Do you have any idea how dangerous and… and _deadly_ that sounds?!”

“You know what,” Bucky jumped in, attempting to help Sam from making a bigger idiot of himself. “You’re right. That does sound super dangerous, so let’s _not_ do that and do… something else.”

Everyone rolled their eyes at Bucky’s lame response, but Steve seemed placated, so they let it go.

“So, how’s detention been with Stark,” Natasha asked, stabbing her fork at her salad.

“Pretty good,” Steve said, practically beaming. “The end of it could’ve been better. I had mentioned something about having the weekend free once the other day and he had said ' _Speaking of weekends….'_ I think he was going to ask me to do something with him, but then Coulson came in. I tried to ask him after, but he got all skittish and ran off mumbling something about spaghetti? I don’t know.”

“Spaghetti Tuesdays,” Bruce said, eating his tuna wrap. “His mom is native Italian, and every Tuesday she makes homemade noodles and they have spaghetti.”

“Wow,” Steve said, “I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah, Tony can speak fluent Italian too, it’s pretty cool.”

“Aw, Brucie Bear, are you talking about little old me?”

Everyone turned once again as they heard Tony’s voice. Everyone also noticed the way Steve’s face seemed to light up the moment he saw Tony, and the way Tony’s did the same.

“You’re not spreading vicious rumors, are you?”

“About you?” Bruce snorted. “I don’t need to do that, you do that well enough on your own.”

“True,” Tony conceded. “What are you doing here anyway? I thought we had a club meeting today.”

“Oh, I was talking to Clint about his math homework, guess I lost track of time,” Bruce lied easily. “Though if you had bothered to show up to the last meeting you would know that this one got cancelled because Reed is out of town.”

“Well, that explains why nobody was there,” Tony smiled and turned to Steve. “Hey, do you uh… you mind if I sit with you guys? You’re stealing all my friends, Steve-O.”

“Oh,” Steve jumped and immediately moved his backpack from beside him, clearing up a much-too-small-space for sitting. “Hey, do you guys think you can scoot-“ But when he looked he noticed that everyone at the table had already scooted down a seat so that Tony had a space to sit on Steve’s other side. He blushed slightly as they all smirked at him while Tony sat down, unaware of Steve’s embarrassment.

“So,” he clapped his hands together and looked around eagerly. “What are we talking about?”

“Oh, well the boys were just talking about playing flag football on rollerblades.”

“Really,” Tony’s eyes lit up. “That sounds like so much fun, can I watch?!”

Steve choked on his soda. “No, you can’t watch because they’re not doing it because it’s super dangerous!”

Tony smirked and winked around the table. “Right, that’s what I meant.”

Everyone laughed while Steve rolled his eyes in fond exasperation. “So, Steve,” Tony started, reaching over and picking food off of Steve’s plate. Everyone shared looks of surprise when Steve pushed his plate closer to Tony to make it easier. Steve was stingy about food. “You manage to get detention yet today? Because, obviously, I did. Wouldn’t want to be the only one in the club.”

“No, I haven’t,” Steve said hopefully. “And it’s Friday, and I only have two classes left after this, so I’m hoping I can keep this trend going and actually go home right after school.”

All of Steve and Tony’s friends shared apprehensive looks, knowing that their plan would be happening in his last period of the day during his chemistry lab. They felt bad about letting Steve get his hopes up, only to crush them. Clint looked over at Bruce, trying to communicate with his eyes that today was just a bad idea, but Bruce seemed to be purposefully ignoring him. Or maybe he was just that oblivious. Clint aimed a kick under the table.

“ _OW_ ,” Tony shouted, rubbing his shin. “What the hell did you kick me for, Barton?!”

“Sorry,” Clint said sheepishly. “I was thought that was the table.”

Tony rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to Steve. “Well, as fun as stealing your lunch is, I’m going to go buy my own,” Tony said as he stood.

“I’ll come with you,” Steve said quickly, jumping up so fast that he knocked Bucky into Thor’s lap. “I’m still pretty hungry, actually….”

“Well,” Bucky said, scrambling off of Thor. “The rate their going and maybe by graduation they’ll actually go on a date!”

As they walked away, Clint aimed another kick under the table and his the correct leg this time.

“Ow,” Bruce said darkly. “My leg is not a pole, Clint.”

“Oh, shut up,” Clint griped. “You know I was trying to get your attention but you ignored me, what the hell?”

“Because I know what you’re going to ask, and the answer is no. You heard what Steve said, right? Tony was going to ask him to do something this weekend, but he got interrupted before he could. He won’t have enough time to try again after their psych class, and Tony is going to have to work the courage back up again, which he can do after school, _with_ Steve, in _detention_.”

And with that, Bruce got up and stormed off, shoving through a group of freshmen as he did.

“Wow,” Bucky said surprised. “Who pissed in his cheerios?”

Natasha smirked over at her boyfriend’s put out face. “Well, he did say you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.”

* * *

 

Just like Bruce had promised it would, their plan went off without a hitch. A little extra of some chemical or another while Steve wasn’t look, and while the teacher walked by their station, and their concoction exploded, sending puffs of green smoke flying into Steve, Bruce’s, and Dr. Blonsky’s face. Sure, it had gotten Steve two hours of detention instead of his customary one, but everyone knew most teachers help a soft spot for Steve, so Coulson wouldn’t keep him past four. Especially on a Friday.

“Oh my god,” Tony said when looked up when Steve walked in. “ _Your hair is green_!”

“Yeah,” Steve said sheepishly. “A mistake in chemistry I guess. I suppose I wasn’t paying close enough attention.”

“So why are you here if it was an accident?”

“Because according to Blonsky, we weren’t using any chemicals that would’ve caused that reaction, the only ones that would were in the science club lab and he thought I broke in there and stole chemicals for my experiment.”

Tony thought about how when he had walked up to Steve’s table early, Bruce was there saying something about talking to Clint about math homework, which was a complete lie. Bruce was a terrible liar. Any chemicals take from the Science Club Lab could only have been taken by someone with a key to that room, and the only people with a key were Tony, Bruce, and the Science Department head. Obviously he hadn’t gotten those chemicals, and it wouldn’t have been a teacher, so Tony could only cringe inside at the realization of what that meant. Somehow they had lapped Bruce into their evil little plan.

“Are there any _other_ parts of you that are green?” Tony asked, diverting Steve’s attention away from the previous train of thought.

“N-no,” Steve stuttered, a blush growing on his face that clashed horribly with his hair. It was adorable. “No, just the hair. Poor Bruce and Blonsky though were covered in the stuff, completely green. It was crazy. Blonsky freaked and tried to make us take a chemical shower-“

“Bruce was you’re partner?” Tony blurted before he could stop himself.

“Yeah,” Steve frowned, “I feel kind of bad too; I warned him I was terrible at this stuff, but he insisted on helping me.”

Yeah. Tony would be having a chat with Bruce later.

“So, what is the great Tony Stark in detention for today?”

“You know what,” Tony said, smiling nervously, fidgeting with his hands a bit. “Before we swap war stories, there’s something I want to ask you before Coulson coc- interrupts me again.”

“Ok,” Steve blushed, knowing what was coming.

“So, I was wondering—and it’s totally cool if you don’t want to, I understand—but I was thinking if you wanted to, maybe this weekend we could like…. At my house or something…. Yeah. You know, if you wanted to.” _Way to sound like you’re asking for a booty call, Stark._

“Oh, yeah, that would be great,” Steve said smiling so wide Tony could count all his teeth. “You want me to come hang out at your house, right?”

“Yeah, if you want, but if you don’t that’s cool too. We could go to the mall or the movies or even your place if you’d be more comfortable there, its fine with me, whatever floats your boat—“

“I’d love to,” Steve smiled.

“Great.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.”

“Awesome,” Tony beamed, feeling like he was on cloud nine.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarah Rogers makes some observations about her son, Steve and Tony finally hang out somewhere that isn't school detention, and Howard Stark is, well, Howard Stark. What could go wrong?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAHA WOW SORRY I DISAPPEARED. I started college and wow, they aren't kidding when they say it is a LOT of work. I haven't been posting, but luckily I have been mapping out this story and I am on top of all of my work (finally), so I should be able to finish writing and start posting again.
> 
> This one ended up longer than I thought it would be, but I figure that can be my apology for not updating in, like, three months. Heh, sorry.
> 
> Again, as I type this up and post it, it is 3:30 AM, so if you see any glaring errors, please let me know!
> 
> Warning for emotionally abusive parenting and derogatory language.

Sarah Rogers was plenty of things, but no one could ever say that she was stupid.

She hadn't been too concerned on the first day of school when she got a call from the principle teller her that her son had gotten into a fight with a fellow classmate. She knew her son very well, and she knew that he couldn't stand rude people or bullies, so if Steve had gotten into a fight with some other boy, well, chances are they had probably deserved it. Not that she condoned her son participating in such barbaric violence, but she knew with a righteous streak as long and as wide as her sons, it was bound to happen eventually.

She was just glad her Steve was big enough now to defend himself. That boy, when he would always get into fights before his growth spurt and before he grew out of his asthma, she just couldn't help but getting frustrated with him. He would come home, all steaming and virtuous, covered in blood and bruises and practically falling on the floor out of breath. She hated to see her son put himself in those situations, but she also knew that he had inherited hers and his fathers stubbornness, so arguing the point was moot. Now that he was older, stronger, and not as hot-headed, she didn't have to worry about him as much anymore. Or so she had thought.

So when the call had come, she wasn't surprised, no. Was she disappointed that her son had been out into that situation again so soon in the school year, yes. But she also couldn't help but being proud. The principle had told her the fight had ensued because of a fellow bullying a freshman, and knowing that her son was so noble as to stand up for complete strangers made her proud, like she had done well in raising him on her own. Like she said, when Steve punched someone, they most likely deserved to be punched. Not that she would admit that to Steve, because lord knows that would only encourage him.

Sarah had figured the usual punishment would be in order: no PlayStation for two weeks and no car. She would talk to him about how violence was wrong and that he should never allow an argument to boil down to a fight, but she knew that noise would go in one ear and out the other. She knew that he wasn't being violent for violence's sake, or purposely to cause trouble, and she knew that her son was never the one to throw the first punch, but she did have to pull the responsible mom card sometimes.

What she had not expected, however, was for her son to come home looking happier than he had in a long time. He looked as though nothing could wipe that smile from his face. Not even taking away his PlayStation and car keys had done anything to diminish his good mood. All through her talk about how "fighting is never the answer and blah blah blah," it was obvious his mind was somewhere else. He kept staring off into the distance with a content little smile that she knew had nothing to do with the fight earlier today.

"Steven Grant Rogers, are you even listening to me right now?" She had asked in find exasperation.

He seemed to come out of his daze long enough to glance over at her and say, "Yes, ma, violence bad, words good," before he was back to staring off into space.

"Honestly, Steve, what has gotten into you?"

Steve blushed as he seemed to realize what he had been doing before telling his mom the story of what had happened that day. Without his father around to help anymore, she had grown very close to her son, having to be both the mother and father figure in his life. He always told her everything, no matter how embarrassing or troubling the problem.

So he told her about the fight, the language that Hodges had used against that poor boy (honestly Sarah had half a mind to find that boy and give him a piece of her mind as well), Steve standing up for him, and about Hodges throwing the first punch. He went on to tell her about how he thought he would be alone in detention that day until Tony Stark walked in and they talked basically from then on until Steve got into his car to drive home.

Suddenly everything clicked into place. Oh yes, she remembered Tony Stark. She remembered how her Steve had pinned after that boy all through freshman year, everything "Tony did this," or "Tony said that." As high school had gone on Steve had claimed to have gotten over his crush on the other boy and that it didn't matter because he was pretty sure Tony didn't even know he existed. But Sarah Rogers was not stupid and she knew that Steve was still head over heels for this boy, and that night had just proven her theory.

So, senior year, everything had gone back to "Tony did this," and "Tony said that," but this time instead of hearing it through other sources, it was Steve actually talking to Tony to hear all of these things in the suspiciously numerous detentions he'd been getting. He was always sure to explain that the detentions were an accident, he didn't mean to do this or that, he tripped, he fell, he forgot to turn off his phone. And while Sarah Rogers was not a stupid person, well, right now she couldn't help but think, in a loving way of course, that the same could not be said for her son, especially his observation skills.

Steve, bless his heart, had to be the most oblivious boy she had ever met. After hearing all the stories she had discovered pretty easily that Steve's friends seemed to be setting him up for failure. Though she really did not want to know why her sons friends were purposely trying to put Steve in detention, but that seemed like that was what they were doing. Their reasoning, however, had become obvious to her pretty quickly when on those days that Steve did have detention he would come home gushing even more about how "Tony did this," and "Tony said that."

She had been concerned at first about what all of this would do to Steve's permanent record, but seeing as she never got a call or a letter about the increasing amount of detentions, she decided to ignore it. No one was getting hurt, and as far as she could tell Steve wasn't getting into any serious trouble. She couldn't very well punish her poor oblivious child for getting detentions when it wasn't his fault. The minute something went wrong, however, she was putting her foot down.

Today though, today was different than any of Steve's detention days with Tony. This one he seemed happier, more excited, and maybe even a little anxious if she was honest. She ignored it at first, but as the evening went on and dinner came around and her son still could not stop smiling or chuckling quietly under his breath through the meal, she couldn't contain herself any longer.

"Did something happen at school today, Steve?" She asked innocently. Probably too innocently judging by the look her son gave her. "You seem awfully happy about something is all."

He blushed as he looked down at his salad, seeming to realize what he had been doing all afternoon. "Yeah, actually, today was really good. I was in detention again for some stupid reason or another," Sarah rolled her eyes, "and I was talking to Tony like usual and, well... he asked me if I wanted to hang out with him this weekend. Like, at his place or something."

 _Oh lord, finally,_ Sarah thought to herself _._ _It's about damn time._

"Well that's wonderful, sweetheart! Are you excited?"

"Yeah," Steve answered vaguely as he poked at his peas, suddenly looking nervous."I just... I've never spent any time with him outside of school and I just... well, what if he doesn't like me?"

"Oh, honey, I'm sure you have nothing to worry about."

"You think?" He asked, looking over and looking hopeful.

She had to stop herself from snorting at the look on her sons face. He seemed genuinely afraid this Tony wouldn't like him, and if the things her son said about Tony were true, she knew for a fact that that would not be a problem.

"Trust me, Steve. I'm positive."

"Yeah," Steve said, smiling once more and shoveling more food into his mouth. "Yeah, you're right."

No, Sarah Rogers was not a stupid woman. But apparently, if her son honestly thought that this Tony child wouldn't like him, she thought as she rolled her eyes, the same could not be said for her son.

* * *

 

Steve fiddled nervously with his car keys as he sat on the couch, staring at the clock, waiting for 1:30 to roll around so he could start driving over to Tony's house. Tony had texted him this morning telling him to be there at two, and Steve was just a ball of nerves. He kept jingling his keys in his hands, overthinking everything about today. _What if he doesn't like me? What if I say something stupid? What if I_ do _something stupid? What if I say and do something so stupid he doesn't like me anymore? What if-_

"Honesly, Steven, if you do not stop playing with those keys and get your butt out that door already I will push you into my car and drive you there myself!"

Steve blushed as he looked up at his mother who was standing in the doorway to the kitchen with hands on her hips and a teasing smile on her face.

"Sorry," he said, standing. "I guess I'm a little nervous."

"Really?" His mom drawled as she turned back into the kitchen. "I hadn't noticed."

Steve blushed even deeper as he picked up his jacket and headed for the door.

"Alright, well I guess I'll go now then."

"Good," his mother called from the kitchen. "Just call me and let me know if you'll be home for dinner tonight or not!"

So Steve set about his way. Then of course Steve, being Steve, got lost trying to follow Tony's directions to his house and had to stop to look up the address on his phone, causing him to be ten minutes late. He turned into the lot that Tony's house was on (and who was he kidding, that thing was a _mansion_ ) and pulled up to the front gate. A little unsure what to do, he made to get out of the car, but just as he did the gates opened and he was able to pull up to the giant building.

He parked a little away from the front door so he could have time to gather himself before going inside. _What if I make a fool of myself? I mean I've said some pretty stupid things to him before and he just laughed it off but what if-_

He was shocked when he went to knock on the door only for it to swing open as he raised his hand to knock. A tall, think, balding man was standing in front of him, staring down his nose at Steve, who's hand was still raised to knock on the door.

He blushed as he lowered his hand, but thankfully the man at the door didn't say anything.

"Ah, you must be Mister Rogers," the man said in a British accent. "Young Master Stark has been expecting you. Right this way, sir."

Steve walked through the door with eyes wide when the man stood back to allow him in. He stood awkwardly in the threshold waiting for the other man to finish closing and locking up the door.

"Master Stark is down in the garage," the man said as he started walking towards the stairs, motioning for Steve to follow him. "My name is Jarvis and I am the Stark's butler, so if there is anything you or Master Stark shall require while you are here, I would be happy to accommodate you, sir."

 _Butler?_ Steve thought as he followed the man, Jarvis, down the stairs and into a metal hallway with glass walls on one side. He watched as Jarvis typed a code into a keypad and opened the door in the glass walls, allowing loud AC/DC music to blast through what had apparently been sound proof glass.

"Right this way, sir," Jarvis shouted over the noise of music. Steve walked into the room and stopped short, causing Jarvis to almost run into him as he went to go talk to Tony.

Steve had always know Tony was a genius, but seeing this sort of cemented in his mind. If this was the garage that Jarvis was talking about, then this had to be the most high-tech garage Steve had ever seen.

The walls were made of what looked to be stainless steel, the cold silver metal glinting in the moonlight. The floor was concrete and covered in what looked like a mixture of dried paint, gasoline, and oil. All around the room there were tables, covered in different technology that Steve couldn't even recognize, let alone put a name to. Junk and trash littered certain areas of the floor, and one table was covered in what looked like rolled up and crumpled up blueprints. Steve was even more shocked when he looked over at Tony, who was crouching by what looked like a robotic arm on wheels, when suddenly two more robotic arms rolled past Steve, almost knocking him over. On one side of the room were a couple of couches and the biggest TV and stereo system he had ever seen in his life, and on the other side was a wide collection of what looked like both classic and modern sports cars. There were no windows so Steve could only assume they were in a basement of some sort. _The most impressive basement ever,_ he thought to himself.

He was so busy examining the room that he didn't even notice that the music had been shut off and that Jarvis had left the room until suddenly Tony was at his side, beaming at him like Steve was the best thing in the room to look at. Steve couldn't help but smile back as he stood in awe.

"Like what you see?" Tony asked, looking around the room. "I know it's a bit much, but this where I spend most of my time."

He followed Steve, keeping up a running commentary as Steve walked around taking everything in. "This is my lab, or at least that's what I call it. There isn't much science going on down here, that's Bruce's thing, I'm more into engineering than anything else, I like to build things a lot. This is actually supposed to be the garage, but dad moved all of his work into his lab upstairs, so he let me move in down here. This place was too big for our cars anyway-- no, Dum-E, put that down!"

Steve, who hadn't picked anything up, turned around, and was about to ask Tony why he had called him a dummy before he wasn't talking to him, but rather to the robot arm he had been crouched next to earlier, who appeared to have picked up a blow torch of some sort.

Steve followed Tony as he ran to the arm and took the torch from its claw.

"I do not trust you with a torch, do you remember what happened last week? Do you want a repeat of that? I have no problem putting you back in the corner, Dum-E!"

The arm, Dum-E seemed to lower its neck in a pout before looking over and noticing Steve. Steve jumped a little as the thing beeped and started rolling towards him, coming to a stop in front of him and open and closing its claw, moving it around in a way that looked like it was trying to wave its hand in front of his face. Like it was trying to say hello.

"Um, hi?" Steve said awkwardly as he robot moved his claw even closer to Steve's face causing him to lean back a little. He took a step back, only to encounter the other two robot arms that had almost knocked him over earlier. "Oh! Uh..."

"Hey, don't crowed the hot friend, guys, come on, you're making him nervous, what are you doing?"

The arms beeped in unison before backing up a little bit and giving Steve a little more room to move around.

"Sorry about that," Tony said looking sheepish. "I forgot to warn them someone new was coming, they get a little over excited."

"You build them?" Steve asked, still looking a little bewildered.

"Yeah," Tony said perking up immediately, and pointing at each of the arms in turn. "The older looking stupid one is Dum-E, that's Butterfingers, and that one is You."

"Me? You named him Steve?"

"No," Tony said laughing. "I mean his name is You. Y-O-U. You."

"Why?"

"Honestly, I don't really know," Tony said pondering. "I think I couldn't think of a name for him, so I just called him 'Hey, you,' and it just kind of stuck around. He answers to it, so I've just accepted it."

Steve laughed and shook his head at Tony's thoughtless statement. Only Tony.

"So you built them?" Steve asked, reaching forward with one hand to touch Dum-E's claw, only for the arm to grasp it and shake it up and down like a handshake. "That's pretty impressive, Tony."

"Yeah, well. They're all pretty stupid," Tony said, rubbing at his neck in embarrassment. "I mean, Dum-E is practically useless and Butterfingers drops every breakable thing he can get his hands on. You is probably the only useful one around here. Almost everything in here I built, actually, even the TV. I didn't build the cars, obviously, but the only reason they still work is because of me, so."

Tony stood around in silence as he watched Steve seemingly play patty-cake with Dum-E, getting a warm feeling inside. Hearing Steve sound so impressed and in awe of his creations made him feel very excited. Pepper had never really been interested in what he did, saying that he spent too much time in his lab playing with his toys, that it was a distraction from their relationship. And Tony, being completely in love with her (or so he thought at the time), had decided to change himself, go out, and spend more time with his girlfriend and less with his bots. Of course, in the end even that had done nothing because she had left him, claiming the cliched ' _It's not you, it's me,'_ and then dating the head of the wrestling team, Happy Hogan, three days later.

That had been the beginning of junior year, and by the end of junior year Tony hadn't been with anyone else. Pepper was okay to move on, and he loved Pepper and Happy, they were happy together and that made him happy, and they were still friends. But no matter how much he loved Pepper and Happy, it had still really hurt him. He had been willing to change who he was to make her happy, and apparently that still hadn't been enough. And that was okay, he was over it, but other than the occasional flirting with the hot girl or guy every now and then, he hadn't had the heart to try relationships again. He would just ruin it again. Of course, he'd be willing to try again with Steve.

Rhodey had always thought that Tony's relationship with Pepper was weird, and that he thought he was doing it just to help himself get over Steve. And maybe he was right, maybe Pepper had been an excuse to get over his everlasting crush on Steve. But if it was then it totally backfired in his face because it left him heartbroken, and still practically in love with Steve.

Not that he was in love with Steve, ha, that's ridiculous.

But Steve was special. Steve could make him laugh, like _really_ laugh. The kind of gut busting, clapping like a retarded seal, if I don't breathe soon I'm going to die type laugh, and Tony couldn't think of anyone that had ever done that to him. Not Pepper, not Rhodey or any of his friends, and certainly none of his family. And Steve was just really good at listening. Other people would get tired of Tony's motor mouth and tell him to ' _shut up you're driving me insane,'_ but Steve would just sit there and listen to his voice and his stupid stories and complaints like there was nowhere in the world he would rather be than listening to Tony bitch about life.

And the way Steve smiled just did something to Tony that he couldn't explain. He had thought for a while he should get checked out by a doctor for heart palpitations before realizing that the skip in his chest only happened whenever Steve smiled. Whether the smile was directed at him or someone else or even one of Steve's self-deprecating smiles, it always made Tony's heart skip a beat. And no matter how bad a day he seemed to be having, just thinking about Steve or talking to Steve helped more than anything else ever had. Hearing Steve's voice calmed him, made him feel safe, protected, and wanted, feelings Tony wasn't accustomed to feeling from someone.

Tony jumped out of his reverie when he heard Steve clear his throat. Shaking his head he realized he had been staring at Steve for a while and Steve blushed a little and shuffled his feel self consciously.

"So... 'hot friend,' huh?"

Tony shook his head looking lost. "What?"

"Dum-E and them," Steve said as he smiled at the bot tugging on his shirt to get his attention back. "You told them 'don't crowd the hot friend. Was that supposed to mean me?"

"Well, I- I mean to say that... yeah. I mean, who else would I be talking about?"

Steve smiled and blushed again, looking down at his feet before glancing around the room.

"So.. what is there to do around here for us normal people?"

"Well," Tony smiled, "I figured we could watch like some movies or something. Eat lots of junk food and just watch shitty movies all day."

"Alright yeah, sounds fun."

They walked over to the little couch area, Tony picking up the TV and turning it on. They sat down on the love seat next to each other, and their arms brushed together. Tony and Steve exchanged a smile and an awkward laugh as they scooted apart a little bit blushing.

"Alright A, pull up the movie list," Tony said to the ceiling. Suddenly the TV lit up with a huge list of movies, and Tony passed the remote to him. "Here, you pick one. If we're watching shitty movies I can't pick one, because all the movies I watch are awesome."

Steve rolled his eyes as he took the remote and started scrolling for a movie. He made little no noises under his breath as he went, and the occasional 'oh hell no' as he came across what was apparently a really bad movie. He turned to look at Tony as he kept scrolling.

"So, who's A? Like, who turned the movies on like that?"

"Oh," Tony perked up at the question, finally excited to show his invention to someone other than Jarvis. "That's my AI. I built it. It's a little primitive right now, all it can do it take programmed commands and execute them. You know, turn on and off the lights, open this or that on the computer, turn on the music or the TV, that kind of thing. It can't talk back right now, but eventually I'm hoping to upgrade it to the point where you can hold intelligent conversations with it and have it run everything in my lab. I want it to become my own personal lab assistant, kinda like a super smart Jarvis or something, but it's a lot of work."

"AI? That's artificial intellegence, right?" Steve looked over at Tony as he nodded. "Tony! That's really impressive! Why do you call it A though?"

"I don't know," Tony said, scratching his head. "I couldn't really think of a name for it, you know? I mean, it doesn't have any personality like Dum-E and them do, so I don't know what to name it. Right now I just call it A for AI since it can only take commands and can't talk back, but I'm sure I'll think of something eventually."

Tony smiled as Steve continued scrolling through the movie list, asking Tony dozens of rapid questions about his AI and all of his other inventions, causing Tony to get a warm feeling in his stomach because Steve seem _genuinely_ interested.

"Oh my God," Steve said, finally stopping on a movie and looking excited. "I know you said shitty movies, and I know this movie is kind of a chick flick, but it's really good."

Tony looked at the screen, but didn't recognize the name. "What is that? I don't think I've seen it."

"You've never seen _10 Things I Hate About You_?" Steve asked, looking almost personally offended. "Well, we're going to watch it now."

Tony nodded with a smile and sat back as the movie started to play. And if he moved a little closer to Steve during the movie so their arms were touching, neither of them said anything. (And judging by Steve's blush he had definitely noticed.) Tony fell extremely content.

* * *

 

" _...I hate it that you're not around. And the fact that you didn't call. But mostly I hate the way I don't hate you, not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all."_

The movie was ending and dammit if Tony's eyes were a little wet during the poem scene. Looking over at Steve he saw that he seemed a little glossy eyed as well, so he decided not to say anything. He turned to Steve when the movie credits started rolling.

"Alright, that was pretty good, I'll give you that."

"Good," Steve said smiling. "I always loved that movie. I watch it with my mom a lot. She turns into a blubbering mess whenever we do."

Tony was about to tease that maybe Steve's mom wasn't the only blubbering mess at the end of that movie when suddenly Jarvis's voice came over the intercom system, and he sounded strangely tense.

"Master Stark, I just wanted to inform you that your father has returned from his trip earlier than expected, it would seem."

Steve jumped as Tony jumped up frantically, grabbing Steve by the arm and grabbing his jacket and shoving him towards the door.

"Shit, shit, _shit,_ why is he back?! He wasn't supposed to be home til Monday!"

Steve frowned as Tony tried to push him out of the garage and up the steps. He dug his feet into the ground, suddenly glad he had an extra 80lbs of muscle over Tony.

"Tony, what's going on?" Steve asked, feeling and looking a little hurt. "Do you not want your parents to meet me?"

Tony stopped and turned, grabbing Steve's hand and frantically trying to pull him towards the door.

"Steve, honey, it's not that I don't want my parents to meet you. It's that I don't want _you_ to meet _my dad._ "

Steve frowned at that, but taking in the panic on Tony's face and the tension he heard in Jarvis' voice earlier, he nodded and followed Tony out the door. The whole escape became moot, however, when Steve suddenly heard a booming voice from above them on the stair case.

 _"TONY!_ I thought I told you to stay out of my lab! If there's something in there you need for yours, just buy it for yourself, you have a credit car-" Howard Stark stopped stomping down the stairs as he saw Tony and Steve at the bottom, still holding each others hands, which he seemed to zero in on immediately.

Howard Stark was an intense man, dressed in a sharp and obviously expensive suit, hair styled, and looking every bit of the high class that he was. But Steve also noticed how glassy his eyes were, and even from this distance Steve could tell the man absolutely _reeked_ of alcohol. There was an awkward silence for what felt like ten minutes when really it was only like three seconds, where Howard stared at Steve and Tony holding hands at the bottom of the stairs. Tony noticed where his gaze was going and dropped Steve's hand immediately, even taking a couple of steps away from him. Steve tried his best to look nonchalant for Tony's sake.

Deciding to be the one to bite the bullet, he took a step forward and ignored Tony's hand coming up to try and stop him and bring him back.

"Hi," Steve said as he walked over smiling, holding his hand out in front of him. Mr. Stark looked down at it like he had just vomited in his hand and offered it to him. He put his hand down nervously. "Um, my name is Steve Rogers, I'm a friend of Tony's from school."

Howard stared at Steve for a good minute before completely ignoring the introduction and looking past him at Tony.

"I told you not to go in my lab. That's why you have your own down here so you don't have to mess with mine."

"I'm sorry, Howard," Tony said quietly. And if that didn't speak volumes to Steve about the situation. "I needed a 9mm wrench and I couldn't find mine. Let me go grab it and you can have it-"

"No," Howard said, glaring back and forth between Steve and Tony before taking a step back. "You can keep it. I don't want it."

Tony sighed and nodded, but froze as he heard what Howard said as he turned around to leave. Steve's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open in shock.

"Fucking fag son and faggot fucking boyfriend."

They stood together in tense silence after Howard had finally gone back up to the first floor. Tony flinched when he heard Howard's door shut, and Steve tried not to think about what that flinch might've meant.

After what felt like an eternity of awkwardness, Tony grabbed Steve's hand again, a little looser this time and more around the wrist, and pulled Steve up the stairs to the front door. Steve went willingly, trying to think of something to convey to Tony that it was okay, he didn't think any less of him for what his dad had said to him. But then again, what do you say to someone who's own father had called them a... a... _that_ right in front of his friend while completely drunk off his ass. He really didn't know what to do.

"Well," Tony said quickly as he opened the door and pushed Steve out. "This has been fun and all but I have a thing to do so I'm going to go do that thing and you can go do a thing and I'll see you at school on Monday. Okay, bye!"

Steve tried to turn around and say something, but before he could even get his mouth open the door was slamming in his face. He stood there bewildered for almost twenty minutes, not really knowing how to react to what he had just seen. In a daze, he turned and started to walk to his car, not really sure what had just happened, but knowing that whatever it was, it didn't bode well for Tony.

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony and Steve are emotionally constipated, Coulson and Steve have a chat, and Steve jumps to some conclusions that... technically aren't wrong. But are kind of wrong. Also, Coulson cares.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1st semester of college = done. It was a lot of work too, wow.
> 
> So, we have reached the halfway point in this chapter. Or with chapter 6, I'm not entirely sure.
> 
> I made Howard Stark into more of an asshole than usual, so, yeah. Also, I know canonically in the comics Steve's dad was kind of a dick, but since I made Howard Stark into a massive asshole I decided to make Steve's dead father a nice guy. Even the scales a little bit.
> 
> Everything about emancipation laws in New York state is true, and so is the underage college student thing, but I took some creative license when it comes to public school systems because those are all screwed up in the US, I have no idea how those work. Also, for the sake of this fic, since it's 2015 and Steve and Tony are seniors in High School, we are going to assume they were born in 97-98. Ok, cool.

All day Sunday Steve struggled with what to do with the situation.

When he had come home earlier than expected on Saturday his mom had been concerned, and had become even more concerned when Steve blew off her advances to talk and simply locked himself in his room for the rest of the day, not even coming out for dinner. Sunday morning when he came out to take a shower his mom had cornered him and demanded that he tell her what was wrong. Steve had a hard time trying to explain it to his mother because he really didn’t think Tony would want him spreading his personal business around. But eventually his mom’s words got to him and everything came out like word vomit.

She was appalled that someone would treat another person that way, especially their own son. But luckily she understood the delicacy of the situation and didn’t push it. She knew that it wasn’t her business and while she wished she could help her son and Tony, this was just something they were going to have to deal with on their own. They were practically adults now anyway, so anything she could do to help Tony wouldn’t matter because he’d be 18 before it could make any difference.

All day Sunday Steve’s friends had texted him asking him how it had gone. He ignored them all, which probably wasn’t a good idea. Now they either had ideas about what he and Tony had gotten up to or they were just going to wait until tomorrow to corner him and force him to talk. And he knew that he did not want to talk to his friends about what happened with Howard Stark. Telling his mom had been one thing, and he felt bad enough for telling her, but telling a bunch of his and now Tony’s friends what had happened just seemed like a betrayal of trust.

Monday morning came and he had received a text from an unknown number that really concerned him,

_I don’t know what happened but you better explain later. I’ve been trying to talk to Tony all weekend and he won’t answer. If you hurt him, I’ll hurt you. – JR_

He didn’t know how Rhodey got his number, but he had a feeling it had something to do with Thor. As he got ready for the day and got into his car to leave, his phone buzzed again.

_Look, I highly doubt YOU did anything to Tony but we haven’t heard from him since Friday. You saw him last, so if you can tell us what’s wrong, please do. I’m getting worried. – Bruce_

He decided to try and avoid everyone at school today, which, in hindsight, was a bad idea because he had classes with Clint, Bucky, and Rhodey alone before lunch, so why he thought that would work was beyond him. No matter how many ‘ _I don’t want to talk about it_ ’s or ‘ _It’s not my place to say_ ’s he told everyone, even trying to go as far as to say nothing happened _specifically_ between him and Tony, it didn’t matter. By lunch Steve’s friends were mad and convinced Tony had done something wrong, and Tony’s friends were mad at Steve and convinced he had fucked it all up somehow. Of course the fact that Tony decided not to come to school that day didn’t help any either.

Steve had decided that morning that he would try to talk to Tony at some point today. When he got to school, however, Tony was nowhere to be found. He looked for Tony at lunch, waited for him to show up to Psych, but the guy just wasn’t there. He had even gone as far as going to the Science Club to see if he was hiding there, but Bruce told him with a sympathetic look that he hadn’t seen Tony all day. Finally, he had decided to wait outside of detention and try and see if maybe he was there, but no one was in the room, not even Mr. Coulson.

Every day that week he went to school with the intention of seeking out Tony and trying to talk to him about what had happened. He didn’t want Tony to think Steve thought any less of him because of his father’s words, and he definitely didn’t want Tony to think that Steve blamed him for his father’s actions. He waited by the door to their psych class, he waited by Tony’s locker in the morning, he checked in with Bruce at the Science Club Lab at lunch, and he waited outside the detention room every day after school waiting for Tony to show up. Steve would text and call, but all his texts were ignored and all his calls sent straight to voicemail.

Finally Friday came around and the whole school seemed to be on edge. All of the ‘popular’ kids and all of the ‘geeks’ and the ‘jocks’ were all mad at each other, and the whole school could feel it. And Steve was really getting tired of it.

Friday at lunch Steve decided to go to Mr. Coulson’s office and see if he could talk to the man about Tony. Tony and Coulson seemed somewhat close when they were in detention, and since Howard Stark basically owned half of school and the school board, maybe Coulson knew a little bit about how to handle the man.

He was walking up to Coulson’s office when suddenly the door opened up and there, in the doorway in all his glory, was Tony. He looked a little worse for wear but he seemed to be pretty decent. His hair was a little mused and he had huge black bags under his eyes, but other than that he seemed—wait.

Those weren’t bags.

That was one very large black eye.

Anger like Steve had never felt coursed through his body, filling his veins and turning his face red. He could feel his body swell with the intensity of it. How dare Howard Stark lay a hand on Tony! Steve knew that Howard was a dick, but knowing and seeing that he _hit_ Tony was too much for Steve’s already high strung emotions to handle.

The anger he was feeling must have shown on his face because Tony’s eyes widened and he took a step back. Before Steve could think about what he was doing, he reached a hand out to grab Tony’s arm so he could bring him closer. Tony flinched away from the touch, reeling away from the anger on Steve’s face, and shoved past him, speed walking down the hallway, barreling through a group of freshmen and knocking them all down without stopping or looking back. Steve turned and stared after him, a sadness and hurt filling him like he’d never felt before.

“Mr. Rogers,” a voice behind him said, accompanied by a hand on his shoulder. “I was wondering when you’d come to see me.”

Steve turned to look at Coulson, blinking back the tears in his eyes and trying to push down the angry flush on his face, failing miserably. Coulson looked sympathetic.

“Come inside. I think you and I should talk.”

Steve turned and followed Coulson inside, sitting in a chair across from Coulson’s at his desk. Coulson shut the door and sits at his chair behind the desk, facing Steve. Before Steve can say anything, Coulson reaches down into a drawer and pulls out a large glass jar full of nothing but snack size and mini candy bars. He pulls off the lid and takes out some Snickers and Hersey, before offering Steve his pick of the lot.

“You want some?” Coulson said, staring at Steve with a small smile. He looked sad. “Tony’s a bit of a bad influence on me, I must admit. I should really spend less time around that kid, but they keep assigning me detention duty, so I’ve spend most of the last four years around him.”

Coulson stops smiling as he says that and gives Steve and a look that Steve knows should mean something, but he just can’t figure it out.

“I know Mr. Stark better than probably any other teacher in this school,” Coulson said, putting the lid on the jar and putting it back into his desk. “Spending an hour a day, almost 180 days of the school year for four years with someone really teaches you a lot about a guy.” Steve nods, figuring as much, but not really seeing where the conversation was going.

“Of course, it also helps that I used to work with Tony’s father.”

Steve’s head snaps up at that, and he can feel the look of disbelief on his face. His emotions are just an open book today.

“Oh, yeah,” Coulson said with a frown. “Before I came to work here at the school as assistant principle, I worked on the schoolboard, so I had a lot of contact with Howard Stark.” Coulson doesn’t look happy about that fact.

“The Stark family is one of, if not _the_ richest family in the country behind Bill Gates. Stark has dinners with ambassadors, he golfs Generals and Captains, parties with world leaders, and is on a first name basis with The President of the United States. Someone with that much influence is naturally going to have a lot of power over the small town he lives in. And he does have a lot of power. Over the school, over the police, hell… over the military; you name it and Stark’s name is probably all over their funding.”

Steve nods along, knowing a lot of this having lived in this small town for half his life.

“Having that much power can go to your head,” Coulson said, standing and walking around the desk. He took the chair next to Steve’s and turned it to face him. Steve turned as well. “I never liked Howard Stark. He was rude, misogynistic, homophobic, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was a little racist. I was glad to finally get away from him, at least directly, by coming to work at Shield High. And then I met Tony, and I hated Howard a little more.”  
Coulson shook his head, frowning at his shoes. “The more I got to know Tony Stark, the less I liked Howard. At this point I have almost little to no respect for the man.”

Steve nodded, understanding how Coulson was feeling after just one meeting with the man.

“Tony does well in school, does so well in fact that he could just not show up to school and still somehow end up the top of the class. Tony’s a seventeen-year-old genius in some no-body high school in the middle of absolute nowhere when that kid could’ve gotten into Harvard at fifteen. I could never figure out why he was still here at some stupid public school.”

Coulson was quiet for so long that Steve thought he was done talking before looking over at Steve so suddenly Steve jerked back in surprise.

“A couple months into Tony’s sophomore year a teacher found him and another boy making out in a janitors closet. It wasn’t the first time he had been caught, so they were written up for it. Cutting class to make out in a closet is generally frowned upon in schools. And since it had happened more than once and Tony didn’t seem to be stopping, the teacher decided it would be a good idea to call Tony’s parents. More specifically, to call Tony’s father directly.”

Coulson paused and looked Steve in the eyes as if determining whether or not he should tell Steve what he was going to say next.

“Tony didn’t show up at school the next day, and the Monday we got back, Tony somehow ended up with a black eye and bruises around his neck.”

Steve can feel his jaw drop a little as he looks at Coulson, understanding a little bit about why Coulson is telling him this story.

“I knew he couldn’t have gotten the bruise at school because he wasn’t here, and when he left detention that Thursday he was bruise free. I tried to talk to him about it in detention later that week, but I got nothing. ‘ _Sometimes people trip and fall down some stairs, Phil. It even happens to people like Tony Stark._ ’ That was the first time he ever called me Phil. I said to him, ‘ _Don’t call me Phil_ ,’ and let it drop. What I wanted to say, _should’ve_ said, was that stairs don’t leave hand shaped bruises on peoples necks and that no one wore cashmere turtlenecks in September.”

Steve felt the color drain from his face, his eyes widening. This had been happening, at least that anyone knew of, since _sophomore year_?! All this time Tony had been getting… _abused_ by his father, and no one did anything about it? Not even Coulson?

“Well, then why didn’t Tony tell anyone?! Why did _you_ do something?”

“You think I didn’t try?” Coulson said, almost snappishly, before taking a breath and turning to Steve, trying to get him to understand. “Like I said, Howard Stark is a powerful man. Child abuse reports get lost very easily, apparently.” Steve’s eyes widened in understanding. “Like I said, look to the police, the school board: Howard Stark’s name is all over the funding. He’s probably got people who are loyal to him all over the town.”

“But I don’t understand,” Steve burst out, feeling entirely hopeless and frustrated in this situation. “Why doesn’t Tony just leave? Run away? Go somewhere like Harvard where he can get away from his dad?”

“Emancipation Laws in New York say that the state can’t issue emancipation orders. Tony would have to become emancipated through some other court action, receive parental permission, join the military, or get married to be emancipated.” Steve’s eyes widened, feeling even more helpless the more Coulson talked. “And even then you have to meet certain criteria: you have to live on your own, you can’t receive any financial support from your legal guardian, and you have to have a legally paying job…

“Well, what about school?” Steve asked, knowing immediately this idea would get shot down.

“Students in college under the age of 18 have to have a parent’s permission to live on campus. If the point of college is to get away from Howard, that’s not really going to help.”

Steve just stared at Coulson, finally feeling the severity of the situation, and also feeling more and more helpless and hopeless as to what to do about it. He just didn’t understand how someone could do that to a child, let alone their own child and let alone Tony. Tony was amazing, he didn’t deserve any of the treatment he got from his father.

Steve didn’t remember much about his father seeing as he had died back in Afghanistan in 2002 when Steve was only four years old, but what he could remember was nothing but good. He remembered his Dad playing hide-and-seek with him, always pretending that he couldn’t see Steve hiding in plain sight behind a chair. He remembered playing soldiers with his father and catching and killing all of the bad guys and saving his mother. Never once did his father raise his hand to Steve. Sure, he would get angry sometimes and yell at him over something stupid, but Steve could remember his father always coming to him later and apologizing, explaining that Steve had done nothing wrong really, he was just having a hard day.

He remembered the look on his father’s face as the Twin Towers came down, remembered knowing that was the day his life was going to change forever. Steve remembered hugging him for the last time before watching him walk away to the meeting point before leaving on tour. He remembered his mother holding them as they both cried when the soldier in formal military dress delivered the letter to their door one fateful morning.

He remembered nothing but love from his father and it pained him that these were memories that Tony didn’t have. Any memory he had of his father he most likely held in contempt and didn’t like to ponder. Which was unfair, because no one deserved to be loved more than Tony did.

Coulson sighed, looking at Steve sympathetically. “It’s a shitty situation, I know. With the whole of the military at Howard’s back, there’s likely nowhere that Tony can go where Howard can’t find him. Tony’s smart, but so it Howard. He’d figure it out. I just can’t, for the life of me, figure out what Howard’s plan is.”

“Plan?”

“Howard Stark has some plan for Tony, I just can’t figure out what. I don’t know why he’s keeping Tony here, why he’s trapped the kid. I think Tony’s the only one who can really answer that question, and he’s not talking.”

“I tried to do what I thought was right to help him,” Coulson started softly, again looking at his feet. “I’m an educator, a protector. I’m supposed to be able to help these children when they need it and can’t get it. But Howard Stark,” Coulson almost spits the name. Steve doesn’t think he’s ever seen Coulson this worked up over something before. “Howard Stark has trapped me in a corner, and now he’s playing with me, and it drives me insane. But I do what I can. I provide sanctuary for Tony, and if that’s the least I can do to help him then that is damn well what I’m going to do.”

Steve furrowed his brow, confused by Coulson’s last statement. “Sanctuary, sir?”

Coulson turned and gave Steve an appraising look before nodding.

“Mr. Rogers,” Coulson started. “Steve. Tony does a lot of stupid things to get detention. And sometimes he gets detention for some pretty weak stuff, stuff most students would simply get a slap on the wrist for. He’s had detention almost every day of his high school career since he was a sophomore, and somehow managed not to get expelled for it yet.”

Steve nodded, knowing this, but not really understanding what it had to do with his question. Everyone knew this, they all thought it was just because Tony annoyed all the teachers because, well, Tony could be pretty annoying.

“I’ve been assigned detention duty basically every week since Tony’s come to this school. Howard Stark may have power, but I have power too. I can access the permanent records of every student. Howard Stark cannot. He can see Tony’s, but he can’t do anything to it but look. I, however, not only have to power to look, but I also have to power to edit, or more specifically, delete.”

Steve’s eyebrows were practically to his hairline by now. “Wait. Tony said he was deleting them. He told me he was hacking into the account and deleting his and my detentions off of our permanent records.”

“The computers are just for show, Steve. Fury and I aren’t stupid: there’s a reason it’s so easy for Stark to hack it.” Coulson rolled his eyes, smirking. “Principle Fury and I, we’re what you might call paranoid. There is paperwork for everything. Tony may delete the recording of the detention, but I delete the actual paper work. And by delete, I mean throw out the detention slip. At least this way Tony thinks he’s doing it on his own and not getting help from me.”

Steve nodded, understanding the how, but something he still didn’t understand.

“But why? How does getting rid of a paper trail give Tony sanctuary?”

Coulson sighed. “Tony spends hours after school in detention. He’s a mechanical engineer, but he hangs out with Bruce Banner and Reed Richards in the Science Club every time they meet. He goes to football practice with Thor Odinson, he goes to archery practice with Clint, and even sits around to watch James Rhodes’ drill practice after school when he can. Tony Stark could not show up to school a single day in his life and still somehow be at the top of his class. Tony Stark doesn’t have to be here. He chooses to be here. He may not always go to class, but he is always at this school, every chance he gets. He does anything and everything in his power to not go home unless it’s just him and Jarvis there. Fury and I know why. And I’m hoping after everything I told you today, and after meeting Howard Stark yourself and seeing Tony today, you know why too.”

And just like that, everything clicked into place. Tony being so afraid when his father had come home. The tense lit to Jarvis’ voice when he announced Mr. Stark’s presence to Tony. Bruce’s text, ‘ _I highly doubt YOU did anything to Tony… haven’t heard from him since Friday… we’re really worried_.’ YOU did anything to Tony. He doesn’t think Steve did anything to Tony. Did Bruce know? Did Rhodey know? Just how good at hiding this was Tony? And how long has he been hiding this from everyone?

“Like I said, I don’t know _why_ Howard is doing any of this. It all seems a bit extreme, but I’m not going to pretend to understand the intricacies of Howard Stark’s mind. But I do what I can to help Tony, even if it isn’t much.”

“This had been going on since sophomore year,” Steve starts, his voice sounding hollow to even his own ears, “and no one has noticed? He hasn’t told anyone?”

“I highly doubt no one else has noticed,” Coulson sighed sadly. “It likely has more to do with the fact that no one can do anything about it. No one has the power. Once he turns eighteen he’ll be better off. Howard won’t have any hold over him legally and he’ll be able to get out from his grip. And Tony probably realizes that, if he’s still here and hasn’t tried to run. He’s probably just binding his time. Only a few months to go.”

They sat in silence for a while, Steve trying to comprehend everything Coulson had told him when Coulson suddenly said something that made Steve’s blood run cold.

“You know, I don’t think the physical aspect has been happening since sophomore year. Tony’s been extremely careful around his father, but until today, I haven’t seen any more marks or anything on Tony. I haven’t seen him like this since that day sophomore year, at any rate. Something must’ve happened to _really_ piss Howard off. I just can’t figure out what.”

Steve froze, unable to breathe. It suddenly felt like a sauna in the office, while simultaneously feeling like a vacuum, all the air sucked from the office space, leaving nothing but the fiery panic Steve was feeling in his stomach.

_Something must’ve happened to_ really _piss Howard off._

He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Was this his fault? Was Steve being with Tony the trigger? He remembered the way Howard’s eyes had darted back and forth between Tony and their clasped hands and felt all the air leave him like a punch to the gut.

_He was rude, misogynistic, homophobic, and it wouldn’t surprise me if was a little racist._

_Fucking fag son and faggot fucking boyfriend._

Steve jumped up out of his chair so quickly he almost knocked it over. Coulson jumped a little, startled by Steve’s sudden movement and cutting off whatever he was saying because apparently Coulson was still talking.

“T-thank you,” Steve stammered, looking pale and uncomfortable. “For telling me that. I, uh… I’ll remember that. I’m going to be late for class, I better go.”

Steve turned and bolted, not even registering Coulson shouting his name behind him, or the fact that he had run right past Tony, who had tried to stop him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know why, but Coulson caring for Tony gives me feels.
> 
> For anyone who doesn't know, emancipation in the US is when a minor becomes a legal, independent adult in the eyes of the government. Usually, you have to be 16 or older, living on your own away from your legal guardian, financially independent from your legal guardian, receiving a legal income from a legal job, and you can not be in foster care or under court-ordered supervision (like house arrest). Though if you get married or join the military before the age of 18 you are considered emancipated. In most states you can become emancipated with a legal guardian's permission if you meet the requirements, but some states can also give emancipation orders where a minor applies to become emancipated, goes to court, and has to plead their case in a trial. This is if the parent doesn't give permission or if living with your legal guardian is somehow harmful to your well being, but you also have to meet the emancipation requirements.

**Author's Note:**

> If you have a prompt you'd like to see, I'm always accepting. I write Stony and Superfamily. So if you want something written, hmu at superhusbands4ever.tumblr.com. And don't forget to follow. ;) (Or don't, you know, whatever.)


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